Football stadium food truck is 'changing lives'

A food trailer at a football stadium is offering paid work to young people as part of an initiative to tackle youth unemployment.

Stuffed Gourmet Trailers has received a £42,000 investment from the Big Issue to employ and train young people not in education, employment or training at Southampton's St Mary's Stadium.

The young people involved come from Saints Works, an employability programme for 18 and 19 year olds run by the club's charitable arm - the Saints Foundation.

Jack Trebilcock is one of the young people now employed on the food truck, and said he had been forced to finish school early "due to personal circumstances".

"Finding a job was forever going to be hard - I had no experience, no grades, nothing like that," the 18-year-old said.

He said working for Stuffed had "helped me develop personal skills and things that I never would have got just, being outside of school early".

"I haven't looked back," he added.

According to the Office for National Statistics, nearly one million young people aged 16 to 24 in the United Kingdom are not in education, employment or training (NEET).

In Southampton, 6.5% of the city's Year 12 and 13 cohort are currently classified as NEET, or with an unknown destination after education, the Saint's Foundation said.

James Pounds, the owner of Stuffed, said his company "accidentally" stumbled upon the issue.

"We'd been employing young people that had dropped out of college or were looking for work, and we realised that we had hit about something," he said.

With help from Big Issue, the firm invested in a new trailer - before teaming up with the Saints Foundation to provide the staff.

The work also gives young people training towards a National Vocational Qualification, all whilst earning a wage.

Among the new employees is Elle Leonard who said the job had "really helped me come out of my shell".

"My life has brightened up a lot, just having work to do, being in a great environment for my mental health," the 19-year-old from Southampton said.

"It's been lovely - I've had so much fun."

Russell Blackman, managing director at Big Issue, explained that the Saint Mary's truck could benefit at least 40 young people.

"Hopefully this is just the template for more to come... all we're asking really is opportunities for sites," he said of plans to upscale the scheme.

"We're not asking for special treatment, we're not asking for reduced rates, all we need is a little bit of help of where we can give these people work."

"The more sites we can be given, the more people we can help."

In Southampton the benefits of the scheme are already being felt by the young people involved in the project.

"One of them [the employees] actually isn't here today because he's taken his mum away on holiday," Pounds said.

"The money he's earned from this has gone to pay for his first holiday."

"That's life changing for young people."