The Notebook: Ed Perry and Rosie Brown on hiring prison leavers, shopping local and saving our soil
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Ed Perry and Rosie Brown are the sibling owners of COOK, the ‘force for good’ frozen food innovator
Closer link between prisons and firms can work for all
The government’s call last week for businesses to hire more prison leavers is to be applauded. At a time when the public sector is short of good news, we should all be celebrating the fact that the number of prison leavers finding work within six months has more-than doubled in the past two years, from 14 per cent to 30 per cent.
A big step forwards was the rollout of Prison Employment Advisory Boards across 91 prisons last year. Rosie chairs the board at HMP Wandsworth and top people from the likes of Oliver Bonas, Greggs and Lotus play the same role elsewhere. The idea is to provide a closer link between prisons and business. So far it seems to be working.
At COOK we’ve been providing jobs and training to people after prison for nearly a decade, through our RAW Talent programme. It’s taught us to judge people for who they are, not for who they might have been in the past. There are moving stories of lives rebuilt and families reconnected thanks to the power of a good job and everything it entails – dignity, respect, a sense of purpose, friendship, not to mention financial means.
Our colleagues, who play a vital role in supporting RAW Talents, see how their work makes a difference and feel a heightened sense of purpose. COOK benefits from a richer culture and a loyal and committed team.
Sadly, there are as many moving stories of people we were unable to help. Often, this comes down to housing. We may be able to provide work but unless a prison-leaver can get accommodation nearby, the job offer is pointless.
Somebody needs to be joining the dots.
Save our soil
Sarah Langford quit the city and a career as a barrister to become a farmer. As she recounts in her beautifully written book, Rooted, she fell in love with the idea of farming with, rather than against, nature. ‘Regenerative agriculture’ is the rather clunky phrase for it. It means doing things in a way that puts life back into our fields, hedgerows and soil, using less hydrocarbons in the process. ‘Mimicking nature’ is how one farmer described it to us recently. Hopefully, we are waking up to nature at last, and what we can do to protect it, our food supply and the farming community. Rooted is a great place to begin. To understand food, we need to understand farming, first.
Shopping local
Great communities need great shops. It’s something of a motto for us at COOK. July is Independent Retail Month and a chance to celebrate and support our local, independent shops. The death of the high street has been forecast for years. The pandemic was predicted to be a tipping point, with an even more decisive shift to shopping online. Yet the rebound of good old bricks-and-mortar has caught many by surprise (not least all those direct-to-consumer digital brands that raised money at sky-high multiples during lockdown). In and around London there are countless thriving shopping streets, full of cracking independent retailers. Before the end of the month, why not pop into a local, independent store for the first time? Chat to the owner or the team behind the counter. Remind yourself that shopping can be about connection, not just clicks.
Dear England
If you can beg for tickets to Dear England at the National Theatre, then do it. The fictional account of Gareth Southgate’s turnaround of the national footballing fortunes is inspiring – and will even get teenage boys through the theatre door and on the edge of their seats. With many of us lamenting a dearth of political leadership, we could all do worse than taking a few lessons from England’s football manager. Keep an eye out for Rishi and Sir Keir in the stalls.