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About Us

Who We Are

Lime Bird Training & Recruitment is a company that is run by chefs, that provide consulting, training and recruitment solutions, predominantly in the hospitality sector. As a chef owner, the director utilises working with serving and ex-offenders to solve kitchen recruitement solutions.

Our Mission

Lime Bird's mission is to provide employability and kitchen skills to offenders that lead to real, sustainable employment, ultimately becoming a main tool to reduce re-offending.

Why choose Lime Bird Recruitment?

Lime Bird has a brigade of successful chefs that can offer invaluable advice to streamline a kitchen's performance. Our chefs are loyal and care.

Training Work Shops

Lime Bird has successfully ran employment and kitchen workshops within the community as well as HMP Elmley, HMP Standford Hill and YOI Feltham. Our Kent workshops lead to a job offer rate of 80-100% with men going on to continue to work with us past 12 months.

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Our workshops can be tailored to your budget, outcome expectations and feasibility.

Our
Projects

Our Projects include a number of charitable activities as well as funded projects from partners such as Ixion, Shaw Trust & Department for Work & Pensions.

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Everyday we look towards making offenders and ex-offenders more employable and to give them the confidence to go on to become positive members of society and role models in our communities.

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Our work doesn't stop there, we advise employers how to employ serving or ex-offenders by giving them strategies about what challenges they will face and how to deal with them.

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Learners break down whole sirloins above, all food made for this lesson was then cooked for the service users of our charity partner.

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Learners were shown how to make pizzas, a high gross profit margin menu option and some varieties they could implement.

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A classic Chicken Ballotine, this time stuffed with Ratatouille served with Dauphinoise Potatoes and Tenderstem Broccoli - As part of a graduation meal.

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Learners start the day with some theory work in the classroom.

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Learners break down whole chickens, showing the importance of retaining high gross profit margins while learning different ways to cook different parts of the chicken - the carcass was used towards chicken stock and chicken soup.

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Here is a Steak Chimichurri Flatbread, learners utilised the off cuts of the whole sirloin the butchered.

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Cottage pies were another great addition to be using the 'waste' off cuts of the sirloin.

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Open Fish Tacos - another example how you can use off cuts to produce a high gross profit margin dish.

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Fish Tostada - Utilising some locally landed Plaice.

High Sheriff of Kent - Garden Party 2025

We were commissioned to provide all of the catering and waiting staff for the High Sheriff of Kent's garden party. This proved to be a huge success among it's guests that included law enforcement, prison service,  the judiciary, council officials to name a few. 90% of the staff sent to the event were serving or ex-offenders. 

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Feedback

What a triumph!!

 

I wanted to send a personal note to you and your Team who were

simply fabulous. The Team worked so well in their different

areas and engaged with everyone so professionally and with

care. There was great attention to detail displayed personally

by them and in the food and drink that was prepared.

I heard so many positive comments in this regard and when at

Belmont this morning this was repeated by Andrea, Jake and

Tom.

 

I would like to thank a couple of people specifically:

R – what a star he was particularly on Wednesday. Rebecca and

I considered him to be part of our mini Team. What an engaging

and personable young man who deserves every opportunity to

move his life forward. His attitude towards the future is second to none and he sounds to be proactive in finding a path for himself (with support from you and others). There was no sense of entitlement coming from him and he is proud of what he is now achieving. Thank you, R.

 

Z – Jonathan and Lucie were delighted to have you in attendance. You were kind and supportive without being obtrusive – you also looked out for me. You showed genuine care in what you were doing – this is a skill not to be underestimated. Thank you.

 

J – A trouble shooter par excellence and a man after my own heart. Your support throughout the afternoon was second to none. You used your considerable skills to great effect to enable the afternoon to run smoothly. Thank you also for working well with the Shepherd Neame and Belmont Teams. The afternoon was described to me this morning as a “slick operation” and you contributed to that. Thank you.

 

Please pass my messages onto them. Jake, you have created a create company giving opportunities to many considered by some to be on the edges of society. You are choosing to make a difference in the world and that is mighty powerful. Thank you. I was proud to have my photo taken with you all and we’ll forward it to you probably next week.

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HMP YOI Feltham - Inspiring Careers - Enrichment Weeks

 

 

 

 

 

We have attended a number of projects run by the Education team at YOI Feltham, including their employment events and enrichment weeks. 

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Employment Events - Inspiring Careers

Our leadership team volunteer their time to give students advice and information on what people can expect when working in the hospitality industry, what jobs are involved and how this industry has helped people with similar life experiences. We have successfully gone on to employ from this event.

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Feedback

A huge thank you for being part of the day. The feedback really does speak for itself—your presence made a genuine difference. The learners spoke highly of the opportunity to attend, and it is clear that their knowledge and understanding grew as a direct result of your engagement.

I think it’s fair to say that you didn’t just attend; you left a lasting impact. Even if some of our young people didn’t always show their engagement outwardly, please know that your contribution was valued and meaningful—for that, I can only apologise and thank you for your patience.

 

We are incredibly grateful that you shared your time, experience, and encouragement with our learners.

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Enrichment Week

We have been commissioned to provide classes to learners so that they can learn, prepare and make their own meals. This class gives students a break from a traditional schooling environment. Learners often suggest what they would like to cook on the next enrichment week and some of these meals have included Jerk Chicken, Christmas Dinners, Waffles & Chicken Ballotine to name a few.

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Feedback

To the Lime Bird team,

 

We wanted to say a huge thank you for your support in delivering our enrichment week in August.

 

Our education team in HMPYOI Feltham are committed to impactful teaching and learning, and part of our delivery model encompasses our enrichment weeks. These weeks are planned and formulated to offer a range of extra-curricular activities targeted to enhance the learner experience.

A pivotal action in broadening our offer was to engage with external providers, such as yourselves and invite you to be part of our delivery. All partners were researched and chosen with learners in mind; feedback from our team said partners were “good and experienced”, with 82% agreeing activities were well chosen and suited learner needs and 88% confirmed the activities would have been beneficial for learners.

 

The Lime Bird team taking over our catering room, leading cheffing masterclasses and speaking to learners about careers in the industry, was a huge success. Staff fed back that “Lime Bird was very popular and engaging” and that it was “great to see the great engagement and career possibilities”. A highlight for our SLT was a learner “receiving a conditional employment offer with Lime Bird”. Lime Bird received overwhelming positive feedback from learners, with comments saying it made them feel “happy”, and “like I can do better with my life”.

100% of staff and partners, and 77% of learners said the event was ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’.

In our team, most staff felt activities suited learner needs and were beneficial, fostering confidence, joy, and skill development. Quotes included: “the young people were interested in different job opportunities following the work done by the tutors in the classes” and “It was the best one I have experienced in over two years with a great range of activities”. Our Deputy Head of Education said, “the energy and buzz it created was a great way to end the term”.

Most importantly, our learners; the activities pinpointed as most enjoyed included cooking with Lime Bird. Learners listed learning to season food, decorate plates, cook chicken and rice and whisk batter to be their favourite elements of the sessions. One learner said he enjoyed “creating a brilliant masterpiece of food” and that it made him feel “happy as we worked together as a team”.  For the future learners asked for more cooking sessions with Lime Bird.

 

The week was a resounding success and an event we are proud to have hosted for our learners.

 

Our Head of Education summed it up “our aim is to strive for good behaviour and positive engagement, and it was there all week”. This is the ethos we will take forward into our next event. Our team always work with the children in our care at the forefront; weeks like this one remind us how critical this commitment is and the impact and difference we can make. We want to say a huge thank you for being part of that difference!!

 

We hope to be able to collaborate again in future,

 

Many thanks,

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Kitchen Workshops - In Custody- DWP

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The kitchen workshops that are run in custody are held across a 2 week period, in which learners are asked to complete a text book in their own time covering a lot of the classroom work.

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Learners would come away with understanding the management and business side of the hospitality industry, gaining qualifications and cooking a mock pub menu.

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Learners were awarded with certificates on completion, cooked and ate at the graduation meal in which selected industry leaders were able to attend and present the awards. Finally successful candidates were put forward for job interviews in which job offers were presented to an average of 84% of learners. 

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Feedback

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Feedback awaiting approval to

be publicised.

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Kitchen Workshops - CF03 Evolution - ESF

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Our kitchen workshops were ran at the end of 2023 and proved to be successful with many of the candidates going into work directly after the course completion with many of the men still working for us today (March 2026.)

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Learners had a 4 week course that included everything from breaking down whole animals, cooking, preparing and storing multiple foods as well as how to be more employable while learning what to expect within the hospitality industry.

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Feedback

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Awaiting Feedback

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©2022 by Limebird Recruitment.

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