When Whanganui GBB volunteer Samantha Casey heard her chapter was going to pilot a Prison Bake programme, she signed up immediately.

A social worker by trade, Sam has always loved helping out her community. She jumped at the opportunity to “share kindness, provide people with a way of rehabilitating and give those who need it something meaningful and productive.”

Prison Bake is a programme run in several places around the motu by GBB volunteers, working in partnership with Corrections. In Whanganui, nine volunteers run four six-week blocks of courses per year.

Participants are men from the outer self-care unit. They are transitioning out of prison life and reintegrating back into the community, and the Prison Bake programme gives them an opportunity to learn new skills, increase their confidence and connect with their local community. 

Once the bakes are finished, participants box them up to be donated to one of GBB’s local recipient community organisations. The men write notes and kōrero about the work each organisation does. Sam says it’s a nice chance for them to learn the good things happening in their community and to see how giving kindness feels.

A year into her volunteering, Sam is now running the programme in Whanganui and has found it’s not only an opportunity for her to give her time, skills and energy, but that she receives a lot in return. 

“I learn so much from them!” she says. “Some of them are good gardeners, and they’ve taught me heaps. We learn about their cultures, their stories, the barriers they face.”

With four men per programme and two volunteers attending per week, Sam has no trouble at all filling up her roster. “If we could all go every week, we would,” she says. 

Sam says participants are always “super excited” to take part. “Some of them have never baked before - they really enjoy learning. A lot of them talk about how they’ll bake for their tamariki and whānau when they get home. I will always remember one man, an older man. He told me, ‘I rang my mum last night and told her I’d learnt to bake a banana cake. And she was really proud.’ That meant the world to him.”

Sam and her volunteers work together with participants to overcome any barriers they may face in learning to bake. Some cannot read or write, so a volunteer will sit alongside them and go over a recipe line by line. 

They choose a different recipe every week and always try to include one themed bake - such as star cookies for Matariki or Anzac Biscuits for Anzac Day. 

At the end of each six-week block, all participants graduate, and Sam says every volunteer makes an effort to attend the graduation ceremony. “The men each get a certificate and a copy of our Koha Cookbook,” she says, “and the best thing is seeing they all feel a sense of achievement and pride. They really appreciate that we treat them like human beings. It means so much to them; they are always incredibly grateful and appreciative.”

At the last few graduations, participants have thanked volunteers with haka, mihi, waiata and even some hand-made gifts such as putiputi (woven flax). 

The baking lessons have a lasting impact. Sam reports that whenever she returns, graduates share with her what they’ve been baking. Last year, several of them got together to hold a bake-off, each baking a lolly cake, with an independent judge tasting them all and selecting a winner. The baking was then donated to the local city mission. 

Sam and her volunteers feel privileged to take part in the programme. “You get to spend some intentional time sharing kindness, teaching skills and learning about people beyond their offending. We never talk about their offending, we just talk to each other as humans,” Sam says. 

“Baking is therapeutic. You just don’t know how much it means to someone. Some people have the perception it is dangerous, but we’ve never had an issue; we just teach and learn from each other as people.”

Sam continues to bake regularly for GBB and serves on the Whanganui GBB committee alongside her Prison Bake responsibilities. “I just love it,” she says. “I get to meet some really cool people. It’s an awesome and much-needed initiative.”