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Processed chicken nuggets, syrupy chocolate milk, heaps of salty French fries: It's no real secret that the state of American public school lunches is a mess. But things are even more depressing than you thought: Inmates – yes, actual criminals behind bars – are probably eating better than our kids.
In a recent article for the Tennessee's Herald-Tribune, reporter Tracey Hackett investigated what comes out of the kitchen at the state's Putnam County Justice Center. She found that each inmate gets two meals a day, breakfast and dinner. (Inmates can buy lunchtime snacks if they have an account, as many do). Hackett found that inmates were typically eating from-scratch, balanced meals -- a far cry from the frozen, chemical-laden processed food our kids are getting.
Sarah Parsons at Sustainable Food, a division of Change.org, makes no bones about it, writing that "When you take a look at the school lunches kids receive in America's cafeterias, jail food looks like a meal at a five-star restaurant."
What's on the menu in prison? One Putnam County Justice Center breakfast consisted of gravy, a biscuit, scrambled eggs, a hash brown patty, pineapple slices, an eight-ounce glass of milk, and some jelly. Dinners are also pretty healthy, typically a sandwich or casserole, two or three servings of vegetables like mashed potatoes, corn and green beans, and sides like cornbread and sweet tea. The inmates even get dessert, like a piece of cake, fruit or a cookie.
And somehow, the prison kitchen managers are doing it for about $1.83 per meal. Schools receive $2.68 for each meal, yet struggle to provide kids with the necessary servings of fruits and veggies. (Congress is currently debating the Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act, an $8 billion initiative to improve the nation's school lunches.)
"I find it hard to believe that a prison could find a way to feed its inmates dairy and five servings of fruits and veggies a day, and the best school cafeterias can do is dish out processed chicken patties and rubbery hot dogs," Parsons writes.
"Most of our inmates probably eat more nutritiously while they're in jail than they do when they're not," said Robert Maynard, kitchen manager at the Justice Center. Maynard his staff have an eight-week menu rotation to ensure meal variety, and a random 14-day sample is submitted to a registered dietitian, who can approve the meals or make suggestions to improve their nutritional value.
The point is not that inmates don't deserve nutritious meals -- it's that our kids do, too.
Want to send your kids to school with better lunch options? Check out our back-to-school ideas on KitchenDaily.
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7-29-2010 @5:03PM flippin said... have you EVER seen a FAT Inmate?
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7-29-2010 @5:18PM George Jetson said... Hey flippin...There are lots of Fat inmates in Federal Prison. Some are so big they have to have special medical treatment for sleep disorders. I have had the sad privledge of strip searching extremely Fat inmates and it ain't pretty.
7-29-2010 @5:08PM Cathie said... The per day budgets for the care of prisoners in the U.S. has exceeded the per day budgets for nursing home residents and school children for years. On top of that, our h.s. grads have problems getting Pell Grants, but prisoners qualify for them all the time and can earn their college degrees while in prison...no matter what the crime. Another one of our nation's legislative blunders!
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7-29-2010 @5:07PM truthteller said... Hey! Whatever happened to bread and water?? Whatever happened to PUNISHMENT???? I don't want my taxes used to feed criminals better than I eat!!!!
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7-29-2010 @5:09PM truthteller said... No wonder the criminals don't care if they get a prison stretch or not! They even view it as a "rite of passage". Whatever happened to CHAIN GANGS and BREAKING ROCKS???? We could use some cheap labor in the DOT.
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7-29-2010 @5:11PM George Jetson said... I was a Food Sertvice Foreman and Asst Administrator for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Inmates in Federal Prison have full service salad bars, fresh fruit choices, cereal bars, their choice of beverages and full service dining. They get three meals a day each with entrees, desserts, vegetables and starches.ONE PRISON CAMP I WORKED IN HAD A SYRUP BAR AND FRESH FRUIT BAR AT EVERY BREAKFAST. IMATES CAN RECEIVE SPECIAL (EXPENSIVE) RELIGIOUS MEALS. Inmate workers in the kitchen are paid small wages but they don't pay for room and board, meals, clothes, education, sports and gym time, religious service. They have commisaries where they can buy everything from sneakers to canned tuna. This on under 3 dollars a day per inmate when I was with them. Schools need to look to food brokers and corp's like burger king and McDonalds for large quantity buys of discontinued items like beef and chicken patties, breakfast and lunch items and paper products. Brokers can sell districts tens of thousands of pounds of meat at rock bottom prices which can then be distributed throughout the district schools. All it would take is someone with common sense and drive to feed our children great food at affordable prices. Of course the people in charge would need to help each other remove their heads from their rear ends to initiate a program that would work.....
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7-29-2010 @5:18PM shbkyn said... This article it appear, is very unfair to those who are paying the price for their crime, and inmates produce most of the food they eat, and all the other work they do they are being paid penneys per hour. What people need to be concerned about, is the fact, that the inmates are taking many jobs, that people are loosing, and they can thank their lawmakers for it, this is where many of the jobs going, it is a well kept secret.
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7-29-2010 @9:55PM mrsp393 said... I worked in an Ohio prison for 17 years. The food sounds good on the menu....but it is garbage.Meals are prepared by supervised inmates. There are no health restrictions on who works in the kitchen. And if a guy has a beef about something - you can bet he gets even.
I recall an AIDS infected inmate mixing his blood in the salad. I've seen magots fall out of the ceiling and into the food.
Also serving size is minimal. This creates problems of giving up your food or geting beat up.
True they do suppliment meals by buying commissary. IF the family sends in money for thier accounts. Commissary is often used to barter for lots of things. Getting enough to eat is not always possible in the joint
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7-29-2010 @5:13PM Pete said... First, yes more research and information should of been conducted and reported. Such as who is doing the food prep in the jails/prison. If its all inmate labor which certainly will be less then school cafateria workers, of course the cost will be lower, and will be able to provide better if not more food, that is only logical. Where are all the products obtained from. Many prisons provide there own veggies,eggs, poultry from prison farms. Hell in manatee county fla, they have there own slaughter house. Meals and other provisions differ from state to state depending on what state laws, accrediation and other groups the jail may belong to....So, there is much more to this then meets the eye...But no matter what, for the record, yes the inmates eat much better then the children...Hell for that matter inmates eat....no lets say live better lives then probably 30 percent of the US population...If you dont think so, your a fool and need to take a tour. I have worked in county,state and even if you go back many many years ago, city jails..........
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7-29-2010 @5:14PM crabby said... I worked in a prison here in California x 5 years.Believe me the prisoners do NOT receive meals that any of us would want to eat unless we were starving to death.LOTS of mystery meat...gooey messy balled up gunky looking side dishes....stale bread with green looking lunchmeat. There really is no such thing as fresh vegetables or fresh food served inside CDC because by the time it is served it is an over processed mess.Most inmates lose a LOT of weight when they come into prison.They do get fresh little cartons of milk and juice and sometimes bananas apples or oranges.I used to literally gag at some of the things they served those guys.
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7-29-2010 @5:17PM carl said... Uhhh...yes. Many. Inmates at most any facility can get plenty of garbage to eat from the prison comissary.
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7-29-2010 @5:22PM tom said... state of georgia inmates also grow and process most if not all the food they consume. and it is cooked by other inmates with staff supervision. lunches are always sandwiches and bread is purchased from local venders. friday to sunday its only breakfast and lunch. some with medical problems get what we call a pack-out, sandwich and some friut. i often wonder why costs are so high when most of the other things short of utilities are provided through inmate labor which inmates do resieve a small wage. face it it is prison and alot work, but many do not and sit around all day. so when it comes to food thats a reason its less expencive to feed them. they grow and process it and cook it. not that i would eat it though it doesnt look taste.
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7-29-2010 @5:32PM Mimi said... Baloney!! And not the kind you put between two slices of WHITE bread with a gob of mayo!!
I also have a relative in prison and I've heard about the disgusting mess they are served. Unidentifiable things that no one would want to eat. I'll bet Nichol didn't interview any prisoners!!
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7-30-2010 @5:09PM raylunderwood said... Hey how about we have school gardens
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7-29-2010 @5:51PM donnie said... Does this really surprise you given whats happening in this f**ked up country??????
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7-29-2010 @5:53PM Nancy said... ANYONE who believes that inmates eat better than school kids needs to spend a few days in their local jail/prison. I guarantee that the SLOP they feed them in jail/prison is garbage warmed over and is nothing like the stuff school kids get. Get a life people, if you don't know WHAT you are talking about or experienced it First Hand, Shut Up your showing your Stupidity! Bet this won't make it to be posted, some people can't see the Truth even if it's standing in front of their nose.
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7-29-2010 @6:00PM dsa said... I worked as a RN in a 1200 bed maxium security prison for 4 years. While employed there we we not allowed to bring in any outside items (including a packed lunch). I ate the same meals as the inmates twice a day. The food was simple but balanced and nutritious, lots of freshly inmate grown produce in the summer. We had collard greens and pinto beans most days but we also had fish, chicken and on occassion beef. We always had lots of exotic fruit that I never felt I could afford to buy in the store like mangos, starfruit, papays, pineapple, uglifruit. We had homemade bread but powdered milk. The inmates cooked the food, so labor costs were very cheap, that may be the answer to why imates eat better than our childern (disgraceful!!)
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7-29-2010 @6:00PM Nancy said... Donnie .... if you believe everything you read ... God Help Us All! If you don't like the way the country is going, why didn't you support to impeach Bush, who screwed us for 8 years, and destroyed single handed the economy. Get up off the couch, and do something to help bring change & a better life for ALL Humans.
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7-29-2010 @6:03PM Thom said... Someone should check out the delicacies in FL prisons they make with SOY products.
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7-29-2010 @6:08PM jheller500 said... Have you ever seen what waste goes on in the cafeterias of our schools? You offer the children vegetables and they end up in the trash. That's why the so called "bad food" menus were developed. So kids will eat something. They get chicken nuggets, pizza and hot dogs becaused they will not eat anything healthy! Could that be what they get at home? As for prisons,I am sure there isn't much waste. I am also doubtful their meals aren't much to write home about either.
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