by Melanie and Markeeta
The Ohio Reformatory for Women opened in 1916. In its early decades, the Reformatory operated through agricultural, domestic, and other labor practices that made it largely self-sufficient. It was often referred to as “the Farm.” Dairy cattle, chickens, hogs, and crops were found on the site. Women canned food grown in the fields surrounding the Reformatory and raised grain to feed some of the animals. A photo of women harvesting corn for animal feed at the Reformatory is shown one the Ohio History Center’s general information webpage for ORW.
These days, food provision is a very different situation at ORW. The facility provides three meals per day through a contractor, Aramark Correctional Services. In fact, Aramark’s parent company also provides a lot of the food service on OSU’s campus! Of course, the quality of the food is very different in Ohio’s prisons than it is on campus. While Aramark does a lot of great work training incarcerated people in food provision, and thus in building skills for work life during and after incarceration, they only charge a few dollars a day per person incarcerated in Ohio.
Many incarcerated people purchase their own food through prison commissaries, because they find that the quality and quantity of food through the “cafe” or cafeteria (also known as the chow hall or chow) is lacking. Commissaries are also where incarcerated people can buy person hygiene and other personal products like lotion, soap, toothpaste, lactose relief, vitamins, antacid tablets, lip balm, batteries, et cetera. People can even buy small TVs and headphones if they have the money to pay for them!
Most OPEEP students in the degree program at ORW choose to buy food to supplement or replace what the chow hall offers. Some even rely entirely on commissary for their food and beverages. Over time, people have invented creative recipes using the microwave which mimic food that they remember from home. This newsletter contribution offers two recipes from Markeeta and Melanie. Let us know if you’d like us to include more in a future edition. If you make one of these at home, let us know how it went!
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Although there is a chow hall that incarcerated people can go to three times a day, the food is not very palatable, and the portion sizes are small. To compensate, a great majority of the prison population shop at the prison commissary so that they can create their own meals that are tasty and filling. To do this, incarcerated people shop for food items that they then use to create meals which remind them of home. Successful and creative recipes are often passed along to other people. All the cooking is done in a microwave in 30 minutes or less. Here are two of our favorite recipes. Enjoy!
Prison Chicken Lo Mein
½ a sleeve of angel hair pasta, broken in half
Ranch dressing
A bottle of Shasta cola
Sweet and hot sauce
Soy sauce
Garlic powder
Goya seasoning
1 cup mixed vegetables
Pinch of salt
1-2 packs of chicken
Directions: Fry angel hair pasta with ranch in a large plastic bowl in the microwave until noodles are brown. Add Shasta cola, Sweet and Hot sauce chicken, soy sauce and seasonings. Also add mixed vegetables. Microwave for 8-10 minutes until noodles are soft.
Then enjoy – make sure not to burn your hands!
Prison Beef Nachos
2 packs of Beef Crumbles
1 bag of white rice
1 tub of queso cheese
2 blocks of pepper jack cheese
1 bag of chili
1 bag of tortilla rounds
1 bag of black beans
1 bag of corn
1 bag of black olives
1 bag of salsa
1 pack of taco seasoning
Directions: Season beef crumbles with taco seasoning. Then season the rice and place it in the bottom of a bowl. Place seasoned chili on top of rice. Place beef crumbles on top of chili, and then layer corn on top of beef crumbles. Afterwards, sit black beans on top of corn. Place salsa on top of black beans, and then arrange queso and pepper jack cheese on top of black beans. Finally, put black olives on top.
Microwave for 2 minutes or until all of the cheese is melted. Then eat with tortilla rounds!
