Inmates Opens First Restaurant In Prison. Cooks & Serves Food To Customers!

A project of the co-operative ABC La Sapienza in Tavola and PwC, a multinational operating in the field of corporate consultancy that played a crucial role in the organization and funding phases of the restaurant. The projects gives inmates the possibility of social re-integration.

In the restaurant, four prisoners work as waiters and five other prisoners cook in the kitchen, which are headed by a professional chef - a team that works in Italy’s first restaurant located in a prison.

According to LifeGate, InGalera opened on Oct. 26 of last year at the II Casa di Reclusione of Milano Bollate, with a clear objective: following prisoners in a rehabilitation process of social inclusion.

“It is a ground-breaking project, made possible thanks to the collaboration with ABC. The co-operative was already working in the food industry, but it never managed to launch a restaurant,” said Francesco Ferrara, partner of PwC. “Thanks to the prison of Bollate, we succeeded in integrating 3 different worlds: prison, businesses, and education”. On this occasion, PwC managed the red tape and business plan, as well as engaged prisoners in training sessions.

The project is a real social experiment. A prison opens its doors to people, allowing them to experience reality outside their four-walled cells. Moreover, it allows prisoners to be gradually included in the society.

“I really hope InGalera will become a credible and renowned brand and that it will be able to represent a crucial element in prisoners’ CVs, because too often society stigmatises them. I want to help fighting this stigma,” said Silvia Polleri, President of the co-operative ABC La Sapienza in Tavola.

During lunch and dinnertime, 50 seats are open from Monday to Saturday. “We’d like this project to become replicable, because it has huge social benefits,” said Ferrara. “We hope it will be successful also in other prisons.”