It’s not exactly your average business plan: create a bakery such that, for every sandwich sold, a child in Africa gets a meal; base it in one of South West London’s largest housing estates; staff it with ex-drug dealers and past members of gangs.
Nahwand Jaff
Andy Smith
Andy Smith
Yet this was the genesis of one of the UK’s most unusual social enterprises. Brainchild of Andy Smith, whose Christian charity Regenerate runs youth clubs and more on Roehampton’s Ashburton and Alton Estates, the Feel Good Bakery provides a taste of working life for those who would not easily find employment – most of its staff have been in prison.
“I saw how hard it was to go forward once you’d been in trouble,” says Smith. “People want to change, but unless you get into a positive work environment, it is difficult not to get dragged back into negative patterns.”
Every morning, the small team convenes in the purpose-built commercial kitchen of the Ashburton youth centre to make sandwiches, which are then delivered to banks, offices and cafes around London. Each employee is trained, mentored and offered one of the highly sought-after places on Regenerate’s overseas volunteering projects in Kenya and Romania.
“That’s where you see lives changing,” says Smith, flicking open his laptop to show me a photo of Sachmo in Kenya.
Sachmo was serving an 11-year jail sentence for gun crime and gang violence when he first met Smith. On day release from prison, he came for a job interview and impressed with his determination to forge a new direction. He joined the bakery team and took part in a trip to Nakuru, Kenya. Nine months on, with a credible work reference on his CV, he secured a job on the railways and launched a parallel career as a rapper (FatchDaRapper). His probation officer had never met a more highly motivated ex-offender, says Smith.
The African connection, in fact, began 10 years ago when Smith took a group of boys from the Alton Estate to participate in a street child project.
“One of the boys, Luke, had been in trouble with the police, but he’d just got an apprenticeship as a car mechanic. He was telling the kids who lived on the streets in Nairobi about how he was earning £100 a week learning the trade. For them, this was astonishing good fortune. When he got back, for the next six weeks he gave me his £100 earnings – enough to buy a small plot of land.
“Eventually, through the charity’s fundraising, he went back with enough money to build a garage that now employs many of those kids.”
The garage project proved a catalyst for a housing scheme, creating homes for 170 street children. Then came a school with places for 350 pupils. Earlier this year, Smith was back in Nakuru with 29 young people from Roehampton to run a sports programme at the school.
The charity’s work in Kenya is funded by bank Standard Chartered, which sends its own volunteers, often leading to a curious mix of travelling companions. It’s not uncommon, says Smith, for senior bankers to be working alongside ex-bank robbers.
Not a worry for Andy though, whose easygoing charm is perfect for the role of organiser, inspirer and mediator. His own story is quite different from that of the youths he supports, having grown up in Cobham, Surrey, in a churchgoing family. His mother, a keen charity worker, made knitwear patterns; his father was a car mechanic.
Life changed at the age of 16, when he joined his father on a charity mission to Romania.
“I visited an orphanage with 500 children. It was terribly run-down; those awful scenes of rocking babies. It had a massive impact on me. I had been brought up with a strong faith, but I felt keenly that it had to be more than just words – it demanded action.”
Sachmo trumpeting the cause in Kenya
Back home and uncertain about further education, Smith moved to the Alton Estate to work as a care assistant in an old people’s day centre. There, he saw despair and despondency akin to the misery of Romania.
“The lack of aspiration. The fear of crime. There were elderly people who hadn’t been out of their homes for 20 years because they were too frightened.”
Working with his mother, Smith started a lunch club for pensioners. Soon it had over 200 members and, encouraged by its success, he launched a football club, dance group and music studio project too.
Today, 16 years later, Regenerate provides support for over 200 youngsters a week with gym, football, dance and youth clubs and the studio. It also runs a mentoring service that supports 56 youths.
At its heart, however, is the bakery, which is proving a powerful rehabilitation tool. Over the past two years, it has employed 12 young people, nine of them ex-offenders. Five are still there and, of the others, all but two are in employment. Not one has reoffended.
“Yes, it can be tricky,” admits Smith. “There are a lot of social issues for these young people to deal with. Not least the fact that most have never had a job before. But we create a vibe; it’s like a family here.”
A key member of that family is Louis Cole, also from Cobham, who joined Regenerate as a youth worker 10 years ago and has since become a YouTube hit with his vlog, FunForLouis. Cole self-funded his way onto the recent Kenya trip, documenting the story for his 1.7 million YouTube followers.
Such phenomenal social media reach promises exciting opportunities for Regenerate’s various corporate donors, but equally important is spreading the word on the sandwich front. The more orders, the more employees the bakery can accommodate. For the past three months it has been covering its costs – proof that it works as a model of sustainable regeneration.
Its latest initiative is ‘Feel Good Lunch’, urging companies to provide a free monthly Feel Good Bakery lunch for employees to promote workplace cohesion.
“We’re hoping to double the orders this month,” beams Smith. ‘I’d like to see bakeries like these on housing estates all over the country.”
Bread of heaven, you might say.
For more information on Regenerate's work you can visit their website. The Feel Good Bakery is open in Putney as well as being available for delivery on 02031 959606.
You can click here for more articles on local food and drink, including other interviews like our chinwag with the Head Chef of London House, George Lyon.
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