http://www.slashfood.com/2010/07/28/inmates-eating-better-than-school-kids-that-s-criminal/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.
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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.
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Topic: Inmates eating better than school kids? (Read 2285 times)