Stage 01
Prison
Training starts inside, to the same standard a working kitchen demands. The qualification is real because the bar never moves.
HMP Pentonville · London · With London's Community Kitchen
A second chance is not given. It is built. Shift by shift.
Project 2nd Chance is a hospitality skills academy inside HMP Pentonville, run by LCK Academy, part of London's Community Kitchen, and supported by the City & Guilds Foundation.
Scroll. Service begins.
Order 01. The cost of doing nothing
Ministry of Justice research shows reoffending costs the UK around 18 billion pounds a year. It also shows ex-prisoners who find work are significantly less likely to reoffend.
Ministry of Justice, published research
Leaving prison without a trade, a reference or a first shift to walk into makes starting again far harder than it needs to be. What holds on the outside is work.
A trade changes the odds. Kitchens do not care where you have been; they care whether you can hold your station when service starts. That is a bar anyone can be trained to meet, and training people to meet it is exactly what this project does.
Order 02. The turning point
This was the prison's boiler house.
A back-of-house space nobody looked at twice.
It is now a working cafe and training kitchen.
Rebuilt to industry standard.
Today it serves the staff of HMP Pentonville.
Where the training happens.
Order 03. Not a classroom
A staged employment bridge that holds the same individual through the riskiest moment of all: prison, release, first job.
Stage 02
Release
The riskiest week is the first one outside. The same team that trained you is still there, and the plan does not end at the gate.
Stage 03
First job
A first shift, a reference, a trade. The same person, held from the training kitchen to the working pass.
RehabilitationSkillsOpportunityFuture
Circular thinking runs through the kitchen: surplus food becomes training material, and training material becomes meals.
Founded by Taz Khan MBE
Taz Khan MBE founded London's Community Kitchen, the grassroots charity that rescues surplus food and turns it into meals, training and dignity across London.
Through LCK Academy, the charity's education arm, he brought the same kitchen standards inside HMP Pentonville: real training, real accreditation, and a route into work that survives release.
Publicly launched 23 June 2026. Zero Waste Hub, Fleet Street. London Climate Action Week.
London's Community Kitchen, City & Guilds, Fleet Street Quarter, LCAW, The Felix Project
Help build the next chance.
Volunteer
Give time and trade skills.
Volunteer with usoffice@
Partner
Bring your organisation alongside the academy.
Partner with usoffice@
Hire a graduate
Offer a graduate their first job on release.
Hire a graduateoffice@