A former inmate has set up a Cornish pasty bakery to help other jail-leavers get a taste for life on the straight and narrow.
Lee Wakeham, who served two terms in Manchester’s Strangeways for violence, teamed up with charity Groundwork last year to launch HMPasties.
It aims to help former lags turn their lives around as they learn cooking and customer service skills, and work towards food hygiene qualifications.
Many of the ingredients they use are even sourced from prison farms near the bakery in Droylsden, Greater Manchester.
All staff get a living wage and the shop’s first full-time worker was Nathan Modlinsky, 24, who did time for GBH.
And the bakery’s pasties – which include traditional Cornish, steak, jerk chicken and chickpea curry – are already up for awards.
Lee, 43, said: “There’s a lot of talent in prison. It’s just got to be managed correctly when they come out.”
Lee had been jailed twice by 19 after a troubled childhood.
But after his second stretch, he found work and changed his ways. He now works as an employment coach.
He added: “We’re trying to make fewer victims of crime.
"To do that we need to improve the lives and outlook of people who are committing crime.”
