Summary
There are bakeries, cafes, bars and restaurants around the world which don’t just exist to serve up food and drink – they're on a mission to rebuild lives.
Ruth Alexander hears the stories of risk, reward and redemption from three businesses on three different continents:
At The Dusty Knuckle bakery in London, the trainee programme manager Charlie Atkinson explains why she thinks a cafe and bakery is the perfect place to foster team spirit.
Reporter Gideon Long visits La Trocha in Bogota, Colombia, a bar and cultural centre run by a group of former Farc rebels.
Rob Perez and Mindy Street of DV8 Kitchen in Lexington, Kentucky, US, talk about how they’ve won over customers.
Producers: Hannah Bewley and Sam Clack
If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk
(Image: hands kneading dough. Credit: Getty Images/ BBC)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm no longer ravenous. I'll no longer eat until I fall asleep. The Hunger Game, |
| 0:05.9 | a new five-part series exploring the meteoric rise of weight loss drugs. It's been an incredible |
| 0:10.7 | story with these drugs. The uptake, the amount of product that's been sold, the amounts of money |
| 0:15.1 | is cost. What the drugs do, how they work, and the knock-on effects of their widespread use. |
| 0:20.5 | We'll be sitting here in three years' time going, oh, it caused problems that we're now going to have to fix. |
| 0:26.2 | The Hunger Game with me, Professor Gilesio. |
| 0:29.1 | Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.6 | There are cafes, bars and restaurants around the world which don't just exist to serve up food and drink. |
| 0:40.0 | They're trying to rebuild lives. |
| 0:41.8 | So then be giving them the most gorgeous cinnamon bun and the customers saying thank you so much. |
| 0:47.2 | That might be the first positive interaction that young person's had with the general public ever. |
| 0:53.0 | In this episode of the food chain from the BBC World Service with me Ruth Alexander, |
| 0:58.7 | we're going to be talking to the businesses offering former offenders and people who've struggled |
| 1:03.2 | with addiction, a fresh start. |
| 1:05.3 | She says, you know, we have to do this. |
| 1:09.1 | And I was like, you mean employ people with a past? She says, yeah. |
| 1:14.5 | People have an idea of what someone in recovery looks like, right? So it's our job to change their |
| 1:21.3 | mind about what that is. As you'll hear, it's far from easy. We were desolate. People weren't coming in, and it was very scary. We thought we were going to lose everything. |
| 1:32.7 | But the results can be surprising. People try really, really hard, way harder than any normal person, to prove that they're worth the second chance. |
| 1:41.9 | It's like when you're actually making the food yourself |
| 1:44.2 | and then like you see how it turns out, |
| 1:46.2 | it brings a passion, you know? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.