Former lawyer Andy Hinton plans to set up a bakery to get young unemployed people into work. Picture by Peter Boam.
PLANS for a Jamie Oliver-style project to create a bakery, giving young people career chances, have been announced by a former London lawyer.
Andy Hinton is behind the Foundation Bakery, which aims to give a second chance of employment to people with mental illness, long-term unemployment, disability, criminal records, homelessness and substance abuse.
Mr Hinton, 45, of Tennyson Road, Yarmouth, said: "The idea started when Not Just Enterprises, which supplied cakes and other goods to my friends, Aidan and Louise Collins, of Chessell Pottery, for their cafe, had its funding withdrawn and couldn’t continue."
A keen cook and baker, he took over the baking for Chessell Pottery cafe and its three London cafes and he now hopes to use his skills to help young Islanders into work.
He said: "I’ve always had a passion for food and I wanted to help give disadvantaged youngsters a second chance.
"I’ve applied for council and lottery-funded grants and hope to have an outlet set up in Newport, by May.
"The business is primarily there to create employment opportunities and promote local, natural food.
"We want to try to help these youngsters by giving them increased confidence, motivation and self-esteem."
Mr Hinton was a partner in a law firm in London until it was closed down by its American owners at the start of the financial crisis in 2007 and he moved to the Island.
He plans to apply skills from his legal career, including commitment to quality, mentoring and management, to his new venture. "Initially people will be employed for six to 12-week periods of work experience and on-the-job coaching and mentoring," he said.
"We expect to train approximately 25 trainees each year in our first shop and probably 20 to 25 per annum in other shops in places like Ryde and Freshwater, as we open them," he said.
"Hopefully, after working with us, they will be able to claim their place back in the local community."