Food is one of the most basic needs. We cannot live without it. It gives us energy for everything we do in life. It also provides us the nourishing substances that our bodies need to regulate the body, organs, and systems. This is ugly, real ugly! State and Federal tax dollars are allotted for funding of feeding us, the prisoners. We, those who are residents of the NCDAC, are fed like crap with very small/limited portions. I remember a time when we use to get quarter legs of chicken every Sunday, and on Saturdays it would be the long fish with the bones in it, and on Thursdays we would get liver with onions, gravy and rice. This was up till 2008 and then the menu had a drastic change to it. They had like 3 different types of turkey patties, 4 different types of chicken patties, meatloaf patties, Salisbury patties, etc. Now just here recently for the dinner meal they would fix a meal that’s few and far between which is alright like the turkey gravy and rice, chicken alfredo, BBQ turkey sandwiches, we get quarter leg chicken and a chef salad once a month. The food back when was more fulfilling and nutritious then whereas the population seemed healthier, but now it seems as if everybody is being diagnosed (misdiagnosed in most cases) with high blood pressure, cancer, or diabetes, and all that derives from eating so poorly. Studies have shown that when compared to the general population, people of both sexes who are incarcerated are more likely to have high blood pressure, asthma, cancer, arthritis, and infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, hepatitis C, and HIV.
Chronic disease: 30–40% of formerly incarcerated people suffer from chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, kidney problems, and lung disease
I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. The medication that they gave me made me sick, after research by my fiancé about the medication and on high blood pressure I did change up my eating habits as well. I am on the special diet meal trays now. Even though we do have the canteen a lot of the options are not healthy at all. More of processed items and sugar filled ones. Your family can order you a package seasonally, which they do not have the best prices or healthier choices either. So what are we supposed to do? People of society, we the residents need help in saving our health to live long and joyful lives. Complaints can be made to Kelli Harris, information down below. The Correction Enterprise link is where you can find out which prisons are workforce and where so much of day to day items are made that you in society may not even know about.
Kelli Harris
kelli.harris@dac.nc.gov
To be hungry is to be caught by pincers,
It’s like when crabs bite,
It burns, it burns and there’s no fire
Hunger is a cold fire.
Let us sit down soon to eat
With all those who have not eaten,
let us lay down long tablecloths,
Gather the salt from the lakes of the world
Let us have breadshops the size of the planet,
Tables with strawberries in the snow,
And a plate as big as the moon
From which we shall all eat.
But for now I just ask
For the justice of a meal for all.
Excerpt from a poem called the Great Tablecloth by Pablo Neruda
https://www.correctionenterprises.com/food-and-farm
https://www.doc.state.nc.us/dop/hours24.htm
Director, Food and Nutrition Management
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/07/07/what-s-in-a-prison-meal