Institutional Food Service: The Ultimate

September 17, 2007

Thanks to Alexandra Lewin for sending me this short video of a convention of commercial companies providing food service to prisons (and schools). At first I thought it was a satire, but I have an uneasy feeling that it’s not. Your thoughts?


3 Comments

  1. What seemed satirical about it? It looked very bland to me.

    Comment by Brian M. — September 17, 2007 @ 12:38 pm

  2. I agree, that’s just the sad truth, horrific, but not satirical.

    It’s not just corrections and schools, but likely also the military.

    There was a piece in today’s Ottawa Citizen (where I’m from in Canada) that details how the Canadian military may be offering up the contracts on its bases to the likes of Tim Horton’s, Burger King etc.

    Unfortunately money, not nutrition, talks.

    Comment by Yoni Freedhoff — September 17, 2007 @ 5:35 pm

  3. I found this surprisingly thought provoking. The portion controls of the chicken thigh bits led me to wonder whether prisoners tend to get an appropriate caloric intake of food, unlike most of us on the outside. Could the right amount of poor quality and awful looking food leave the prisoners healthier than the average American overeater? Prison life is probably a bit stressful and unpleasant, even beyond the cuisine. I would be surprised if long-time prisoners were healthy.

    I also wonder whether soda companies have pouring contracts with prisons — are there vending machines in prison?

    It’s good to know another way we use all the left over dark meat chicken. There is an interesting documentary called “Life and Debt” which is about the impact of free trade on Jamaica’s economy. The narrator relates a story of a Jamaica being forced (because of free trade) to purchase a large shipment of dark meat chicken from the US, and comes to find out that the chicken has been frozen for an amazingly long time - over 20 years if memory serves. Jamaica is eventually allowed not to buy that meat, which is then sold to Haiti. I hope the prisoners and our kids in school are getting slightly fresher dark meat!

    I think eating that food 3 meals a day would make me want to stab myself with a corn dog stick! Good thing there are no sticks. This video will keep me out of trouble!

    Comment by Eliza McEmrys — September 17, 2007 @ 8:43 pm

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Topics

This is a list of keywords related to posts. The bigger the keyword, the more related posts there are. Click one to view all such posts.
activity additives agriculture alcohol Alice Waters allergies American Dietetic Association animals antibiotics antioxidants beef bisphenol A books Bottled Water breast feeding Brian Wansink burger king calcium calorie labels Calories Canada Cancer cdc center for consumer freedom Cereals childhood obesity China chocolate climate change cloned animals Coca Cola colbert consolidation corn corn sweeteners corrections Country of Origin Labeling CSPI Dairy diabetes diet and energy drinks dietary guidelines diets e coli eat less move more eating liberally farm policy fast food fats and oils FDA fiber fish food art food assistance Food Composition food crisis food deserts food industry food marketing food miles food policy food safety food stamps food systems Framingham Heart Study Fruits and Vegetables FTC functional foods GAO genetically modified grassfed health claims hfcs Hugo drinks hyperactivity India infant formula Interviews irradiation juice drinks junk food kellogg kids diets King Corn Korea Labels lawsuits mad cow Margarines marketing to kids McDonalds Meat meat safety media melamine Michael Pollan Monsanto movies natural New Zealand obama action obesity obesity in kids Omega 3 Fats organic fish organic standards organics partnerships peanut butter PepsiCo pesticides pet food Phil Lempert photos Portion sizes price fixing price of food probiotics pyramid Quotes from What to Eat restaurants revolving door salt San Francisco Chronicle school food scoring systems soft drinks sponsorship stevia Sugars supermarkets supplements surveys sweeteners taste taxes television tomatoes toxins trans fat USDA vegetarian and vegan Vending machines videos vitamins wall street Whole Foods Whole Grains WIC Yearly Kos