Nutrition & Foodservice Edge Magazine - March/April 2022 - 30

by Kenneth Hanson, CPM, CDM, CFPP
I Was in Jail
Last Week
A Look at Correctional Food Service
Several years ago, I was helping
out with a church youth group.
One of the ice breaker activities
with the kids was for the leaders
to come up with interesting
statements about ourselves. The
youth then had to guess which
statement came from each of the
leaders. One of my statements
was " I was in jail last week. "
None of the kids guessed that
this statement was attributable to
me. Most guessed it was the fairly
new youth pastor. They assumed
the pastor had visited someone
in jail. It was then funny seeing
them try to figure out what
terrible trouble I had gotten
myself into to land in jail. I'm not
sure if they were relieved to find
out that I work at a jail, or if they
were sad that they didn't have a
more interesting story to tell their
parents about one of the new
church youth group leaders.
So, I'm one of those people who
goes to jail at least five times
a week. You see, I've been in
foodservice management for
36 years now, and the last 15plus
of those years have been
at the Polk County Jail in Des
Moines, Iowa. I'm directly
and indirectly responsible for
providing 1.2 million meals per
year. We normally feed between
850 and 1,000 inmates each day
and provide food for a staff of up
to 250.
I spent 12 years in long-term care
food service at a continuing care
retirement community before I
started working at the jail. I'm
often asked by my CDM, CFPP
colleagues about the transition
from LTC to Corrections. There
are many similarities as well as
some differences.
SIMILAR I TIES
Like those of you in LTC, assisted
living, and hospitals we provide
three meals a day, seven days a
week, 365 days a year and do not
close for weather, holidays, or
anything else.
We also have modified diets which
can include medically ordered
diets such as diabetic, NAS, renal,
gluten-free, food allergies, etc.
Menu certification is required as
well. A dietitian must approve
our inmate menus, taking into
account nutritional and caloric
requirements as well as regional
food preferences. Like most of you,
we use cycle menus whose duration
30 NUTRITION & FOODSERVICE EDGE | March-April 2022
is specified by the agencies for
whom we house inmates.
Tight budgets and client
satisfaction are often a struggle.
Our budget is tight, and while
I'm sure many of you have heard
the opinions of " just give them
bread and water, " that is not how
it works in corrections. The food
must be satisfactory in taste and
quantity or disgruntled inmates
may cause safety issues for our
correctional officers. Food issues
in some correctional settings have
been the cause of riots. And we, as
foodservice professionals, should
treat people humanely and take
pride in the products we put out.
Similarly, inspections are part
of the job. We get inspected
annually by the Iowa Department
of Inspections and Appeals, Food
and Consumer Safety Bureau. This
is our food license inspection that
many of you experience; this is the
same inspection that restaurants
have. We are also inspected
annually by the Jail Inspector
for the State of Iowa, the Federal
Marshals Service, and Immigration
Customs Enforcement (ICE)
since we also house inmates for
the county, the state, the federal
Nutrition & Foodservice Edge Magazine - March/April 2022

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