Temporary Kitchens for Prisons

We understand that designing and supplying a temporary facility for a prison or secure establishment will present a different set of requirements and challenges to those encountered in civilian, business and industry settings. In a secure community, the kitchen has a vital role to play, not only in meeting the basic nutritional and subsistence needs, but achieving this three times per day over a restricted time window.

The following pages outline some of these additional considerations, and our solutions based on our extensive experience of delivering temporary kitchen facilities in these challenging environments.

Planning and Designing

We understand that the planning and design process will vary between projects, and our experienced staff have significant expertise in working on prison hires.

On smaller projects, design may be undertaken at a local level involving the works department, security and catering team. On larger projects, we are familiar with the process of working through the client representative and the requirement to fulfill not only the catering needs, but also those of the project budget, security, M&E, and prisoner welfare.

Safety and Security

Safety and security are important in any kitchen but even more so in a secure establishment. The design of our kitchens can include both general and fire alarms. Cooking canopies are also fitted with automatic fire suppression.

External doors are prison specification and ready to receive prison category locks. Where required, kitchens can also have separate entrances for inmates and officers with hold and search areas.

Layout

The wide central corridor in our kitchens allows for the easy flow of staff and goods. This benefit extends into the main production and preparation areas due to the open plan construction. This makes best use of available space and provides the feel and flexibility of a permanent building.

The prime cooking equipment is located under Central Island Canopies which give the maximum extraction length without using large amounts of wall space.

Goods inward areas feature a reinforced floor to cope with the cage movement. They also feature over-door heating and a porch to protect the kitchen from bad weather whilst goods are being delivered.

Welfare

Open plan kitchens using Central Island Canopies feature thermostatically controlled tempered air which maintains the kitchen temperature; this is an essential feature for any open plan kitchen that is going to be onsite over the winter months.

Roof mounted plant rooms are placed above our Central Island Canopies. These rooms house the extraction fans and the boiler for the tempered air. The use of plant rooms ensures that there are no roof leaks where the extraction penetrates the ceiling, and prevents outdoor access via the canopy ducting.

Where the kitchen is going to be located near a housing block, optional sound attenuators can be fitted to the cold rooms to minimise night time noise. Our new Central Island Canopies’ motors are housed in plant rooms on the roof, significantly reducing noise.

Compliance

Our kitchens are manufactured to the highest standards and incorporate the latest health and safety features. Kitchen features include extraction canopies with fully interlocked gas valves, emergency cut off points, automatic fire supression, easy clean extraction systems, infestation proof construction, high lux lighting housed in steam proof fittings and automatic emergency lighting.

The walls and ceilings are all wipe clean plastisteel, and our kitchens feature sealed non-slip vinyl flooring, to facilitate cleaning. Our kitchens provide a fully compliant, hygienic and safe environment in which your prison can continue its catering operation while your main kitchen is not in use.

Technical Support

All buildings and equipment are fully covered for parts, labour and callout costs in the event of failure or breakdown.

We know that temporary kitchens at prisons are used from first thing in the morning to last thing at night, so we offer a level of service to support this. Should you experience any problems with your hire, our service and technical support lines are open and staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and our service response levels include:

Immediate dispatch of an engineer for emergency health and safety issues, where a site is not operational or is experiencing a major refrigeration failure.

A standard service callout with a response within 24 hours. Usually calls placed before 10am will be attended on the same day.

Routine requirement or minor matters which are not hindering the operation of the kitchen will be attended as soon as we have an engineer in the area.

Looking for a Permanent Kitchen?

If you’re looking a permanent prison kitchen, our large scale modular buildings are the ideal solution. Our large scale modular kitchens are cost effective permanent kitchen facilities that are designed and built off site, and delivered in modules, ready to connect to services.

They can provide a time effective solution given that they are constructed within a factory controlled environment, while also keep the number of people and vehicle movements to an absolute minimum as the majority of construction work takes place away from your prison.

No matter what size of kitchen you require, our permanent modular kitchen facilities are designed to your requirements both inside and out and are capable of feeding 100s or 1000s of people each day. They are supplied with a 15 year structural warranty and a 60 year design life.