Scots Prison bakery looks for more dough to expand with new site

A prison bakery social enterprise which aims to provide employment training for offenders is launching a crowdfunding campaign to open a second site.

Freedom Bakery plans to launch a second operation, this time outside prison

Freedom Bakery, which currently has a bakery inside HMP Low Moss in Bishopbriggs, supplies a growing customer base across the city and is providing prisoners with valuable work experience.

It now plans to launch a second operation – outside a prison – which will also train people with convictions within a realistic working environment. Freedom is looking to raise £15,000 on the Crowdfunder platform to fund the set-up of the site which founder Matt Fountain said would enable the business to expand its trading activities to help pay for the service it provides in prison.

“It will also allow more in depth training for its graduates working on day release, and in exceptional cases provide employment opportunities for those it has trained inside,” he said.

A second bakery will enable Freedom to produce wholesale breads and pastries for cafés, restaurants and shops as they will be able to work to normal delivery times, something that is not possible in the original prison bakery. Fountain said it would also provide the opportunity to open up the initiative to others in society who have traditionally found barriers to employment.

“The successful opening of the new bakery will create a model entirely unique in the world, where we can prove that people with convictions can prove their skills and value once rehabilitated back into society.

“The bakery has doubled its customer base in the past two months thanks to the quality of what our prison team produce.”