Farm-to-prison programs can provide inmates with healthier food, support area farmers and cut some state food costs

Farm-to-prison food can sometimes help states save money.
(Graphic by Adam Dixon, Offrange)

A small but growing number of programs are working to create farm-to-prison pipelines that provide fresher food to inmates while supporting area farmers. "Using nutritious, local ingredients in a prison setting to cook food from scratch is far from the norm," reports Liz Susman Karpfor for Offrange. "A handful of correctional facilities throughout the country are reshaping the unhealthy, tasteless, even toxic diet that has historically been served to people in prison."

In states such as Vermont and Maine where department of corrections are using farm-to-prison and made-from-scratch programs, the objectives are better inmate rehabilitation outcomes, overall inmate health improvements and food cost savings. 

DOC offices that want to begin farm-to-prison initiatives should start by getting support to work through procurement processes. Karpfor explains, "Each state possesses different, often cumbersome, and poorly understood procurement policies."

While some DOC officials may believe farm-to-prison food will be expensive, many times it saves the state money. The Mountain View Correctional Facility in Maine uses flour milled in the Northeast and bakes many of its bread items from scratch. Karpfor reports, "Baking a sub roll in-house costs 5.8 cents, versus 33 cents for one purchased via a state contract."

Kyle Moore, who is the food service manager at the Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland, Vermont, "sometimes purchases seconds or an oversupply at lesser cost," Karpfor writes. "His staff is testing products from Salvation Farms, an enterprise using agricultural surplus to build a resilient food system in Vermont."

Michigan and Oregon have "developed high-quality kitchen and gardening apprenticeships in which participants receive certifications and can sometimes be paid," Karpfor adds. While the list of states using farm-to-prison models is small, over the past five years it has grown "exponentially."