First, let’s take commissary food out of the equation. In Missouri they give you a 2000 calory a day diet. But that’s only if you eat everything on your plate. Chances are you will not. So unless you are able to spend money at the prison commissary on food you will lose weight.
I was fortunate to have loved ones send me money. I have never forgotten that.
Now the types of food. Some wasn’t bad but most was bad. Pizzas were like school pizzas. Square with just cheese on them oatmeal and dry cereal wasn’t bad but how can you mess that up?
The grilled cheese wasn’t bad as long as the people making them didn’t burn them. Turkey ham usually wasn’t bad. Chicken a la king and yakasobi and tetrazzini were all bad. The Salisbury steak wasn’t too bad but wasn’t good either.
The mashed potatoes were either runny or really dry. I don’t like canned beets but some people liked them.
I never ate the jello but would eat the fruit which were apples,oranges or grape fruit. Sometimes we would get mixed fruit from a can.
The sloppy Joes were nasty and made from some fake meat. It was very salty and just had a bad taste.
Holiday meals were the best. That’s when they would serve us actual pork and other foods associated with holidays. The bbq pork was nasty. And during my last few years in prison I don’t even think it was actual pork.
And of course just because some of the stuff we were served is the same foods as on the outside does not mean it tasted the same.
Chicken a la king is not the same as the chicken a la king you can buy in stores and neither is Alfredo. I’m told the ones in the free world tastes good but I’m afraid to try it.
But I never complained. After all I was in prison. If there was something I did not like I would give it to someone. I still can not believe there were a few people who would eat everything and want more. They must have been hungry.
– Vernie Seidel