A frozen food company is set to expand after offering employment support and training for those who’ve dealt with trauma, addiction, homelessness and prison.

COOK, which is based on Sittingbourne’s Eurolink estate, has been honoured with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in recognition of its RAW Talent scheme.

RAW stands for Ready And Working, and the project provides training and jobs to people facing obstacles to employment.

The business, which employs 1,700 people, has so far recruited more than 150 employees through the programme.

Most recently, and for the first time, COOK has run its two-week RAW talent training programme from inside the walls at Rochester Prison.

Co-chief executive Rosie Brown said: “I run the business with my brother Ed Perry, so we’re a largely family-owned business.

“We make amazing meals and puddings, like you would at home, and this year we’ll turn over about £100 million pounds.

“But I think we’ve always believed it’s about more than just money and that is why we have our RAW Talent scheme.

“It helps people with barriers to employment get back into the workforce.”

Thanks to the scheme, COOK is one of 226 organisations nationally to be recognised with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise.

Lady Colgrain, Lord-Lieutenant of Kent, presented the award to Rosie and Ed.

Now in their 56th year and recognised around the world, the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious business awards in the UK.

Rosie added: “It is a great honour and privilege to be recognised for the work being done by everyone across the company.

“We are a really big employer. We’ve been in the top 100 Best Companies to Work For for 10 years, every year for a decade now.

“We’re due to open a third production kitchen, hopefully at some point in 2023, and I suspect we’re one of the biggest employers in Swale.

“We’re looking to grow the business, we really believe in good, wholesome, sustainable food and cooking and there’s plenty of need for great food.”

Despite rising costs Rosie believes COOK is good value for money.

She said: “Following tests and studies we found that it is cheaper to buy our meals than cooking it yourself.

“So with the cost of living crisis we still think we’re offering really good value for the customer.

“As far as our teams are concerned, we make sure to feed all of our workers a free meal on every shift so we know everyone’s having at least one proper good meal a day.

“I hope that as a business, we can make a really positive contribution to society by producing a brilliant product, being a good employer caring about our communities and our farmers.

“That’s all we want really, we want to be a successful business that makes a difference.”