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Meals

Interview with Aaron, Jessica, Walter, Margaret and Sherry

JM: How many meals did you get per day?
Aaron: We got 3 meals per day-the first one we got at 4am, the 2nd at 10am and we ate dinner at 4pm.
Jessica: 3 meals a day, breakfast lunch and dinner.
Walter: 3 meals in one days, hot breakfast hot dinner and bologna/turkey sandwhiches for lunch
Margaret: WE RECEIVED 3 MEALS A DAY
Sherry: You get three meals a day.

JM: How would you rate the food? Please give details of why.
Aaron: The food was actually better than I thought it would be. On a scale of 1-10 compared to other jail/institutional food that I have had in the past I give the food there a 7 meaning pretty good but compared to normal food it would get a 4 out of 10.
Jessica: the food was horrible, little taste and no nutrients.
Walter: I would rate the food at about a 5. 5 because they give you more in Hillsborough than in other counties, with a little more flavor. Most dinners can be described as slop. either slop with rice or slop with noodles, and the worst part is that you only get solid meat every other week.
Margaret: THE FOOD WAS NASTY, BUT IF YOU WERE HUNGRY IT FILLED YOU UP. SOMETIMES, YOU WOULD FIND ROCKS, OR BUGS IN YOUR FOOD, AND THEY ALWAYS SERVED BREAD WITH EVERY MEAL. I NEVER HAD COMMISSARY WHEN I WAS INCARCERATED, SO I ALWAYS ATE ALL MY MEALS, AND ALL OF MY FOOD.
Sherry: Breakfast was not good at all, the boiled eggs were rubbery, the waffles were very hard, syrup was diet and the coffee watered down,lunch is basically the same bologne sandwitches or ham salad and a pack of cookies, dinner was different the food was not nutrional at all and not enough portions.

JM: Did you have any favorite/least favorite meals?
Aaron: I hated breakfast there because it always seemed we were eating runny grits or eggs with nasty meat mixed in with them.
Walter: chicken on the bone and "smoked sausage" are my favorite meals. and the casserole meals at breakfast that the inmates call "shank" because it's relatively tasty as well as filling. My least favorite meals are the terribly bland slop meals with noodles and a specific lunch they give us twice a week that the inmates call "cat food". Cat food is disgusting, it's a mix of leftover turkey ham lunch meat and boiled eggs from the previous week cut up and mixed together to make what the jail calls "turkey salad"
Margaret: MY FAVORITE MEAL WAS THE BREADED CHICKEN PATTIES, BECAUSE THEY WERE GOOD, AND THEY FILLED YOU UP. LEAST FAVORITE WAS THE BOLOGNA
Sherry: If I had to choose, I would say breakfast would be my favorite, and lunch time would be the least.

JM: Were there any other snacks offered outside of meals? What was commissary like and how expensive was it?
Aaron: No unless you bought food through their commissary which I thought was a rip-off. The only snack you could get was an apple and a sandwich iff you were hypoglycemic or had some form of diabetes. Yes there was commissary. It was good that you could order via a computer kiosk in the pod as opposed to filling in a bubble sheet with a black pen or a pencil. All that was offered was junk food and ingredients for soup ghoulash. The main item that was in high demand were racks of cookies which you could trade for extra food when it was mealtime. I never ordered from the commissary because there wasn't enough return for the money spent.
Jessica: Snacks could be bought from the commissary.
Walter: Only if you have diabetes. commisary was better than in other jails, by variety. There's stuff on canteen for everybody. You've got sweets, salty stuff, spicy stuff. The prices are ridiculous though. A pack of ramen noodles that sells 10 in a pack for little more than a dollar on the outside costs 82 cents for just one in jail.
Margaret: THEY WOULD SOMETIMES GIVE US AN EXTRA BANANNA OR AN APPLE, BECAUSE THEY HAD SO MANY OF THEM. COMMISSARY WAS EXPENSIVE, BUT I WOULD TRADE MY FREE ENVELOPES SOMETIMES FOR A RACK OF COOKIES OR A SNACK
Sherry: Commissary is like a grocery store, you could get noodles, chips, cookies, cosemetics, envelopes, shoes, radios, batteries,tuna, rice, pickles, cheese, beef jerky, candy bars, and soups and the commissary is kind of expensive, but its good.

Read about inmate access to medication in the Hillsborough County Jail