The Mother Lode Regional Juvenile Detention Center staff is working toward providing more appealing and satisfying meals for detained children, the chief probation officer said in response to findings from the 2018 Civil Grand Jury.
The jury recommended the facility find another source of meals other than from the company that supplies inmates at the Tuolumne County Jail. The report noted that juveniles often complained about the food, and that the administration was aware of the complaints.
Linda Downey, Tuolumne County chief probation officer, said in a phone interview Tuesday that someone complains about the food just about every day, but it is a challenge to find a cost-effective supplier.
The jury members reported seeing a school-day breakfast of “dry-looking wheat bread, packets of peanut butter, and applesauce.”
That was a typical breakfast, according to a menu posted on the wall, the jury said.
“On alternating days a cold, hard-boiled egg is the protein served in place of peanut butter packets,” the jury report said.
Downey said the cost for supplying meals to a relatively small number of people made piggybacking on the jail’s food supplier necessary. On average, about six children are detained at any given time and there were six in the facility Tuesday, she said.
As of earlier this month, 90 juveniles have been booked in the facility since it opened in April 2017.
Downey said when they were planning the facility, they looked into operating their own kitchen as well as buying meals from local schools, restaurants or Adventist Health. Transportation increased the cost, and the hours the meals were needed further complicated the arrangement, she said.
Trinity Food Services provides meals to the jail as well as other juvenile facilities in the western United States, she said. The company bills itself as the largest food service company in the country that's affiliated with corrections departments.
The juvenile detention center pays $4.54 a meal, Downey said, and staff members go to the jail twice a day to pick up trays of food that is cooked on site by Trinity staff.
Downey said another benefit was Trinity provided the documents required by the National School Lunch Program, which in turn gets the facility meal reimbursements.
She said her staff engages in ongoing conversation with Trinity to modify the menu to make the meals more appealing. Recently, they added cereal to the breakfast menu. Also, the facility has an herb garden and chickens for eggs.
“Sincere and earnest attempts are made for the youth to have multiple opportunities each month for an alternative or additional meal that is more appealing and satisfying,” Downey said in her response.
Superintendent Mike Arndt offers cooking classes and barbeques to juveniles who demonstrate good behavior, Gold Ridge Educational Center cooks breakfast and lunch as part of the curriculum a few times each month and volunteers who conduct religious services often bring meals and snacks.
Downey said she goes to the facility to eat lunch and dinner with the kids.
“I wish there was something we could do about the food,” Downey said. “It is rather bland.”
August 21, 2018
The Union Democrat
By Lyn Riddle
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