Patrick Range sat down to brunch in the inmate cafeteria at California State Prison, Solano and immediately reached for the farm-fresh Bartlett pear on his tray. After sampling the fruit, Range smiled broadly: “Best thing I’ve ever had!” Range and his fellow inmates usually receive fruit each day, but fresh pears are very rare. The prison must feed each of the 3,700 inmates for $4.30 a day, and pears can cost twice as much as apples, says Gina Schnabel, the prison’s assistant correctional food manager. “We’re given a budget we have to stay in, so we usually just get food from the lowest bidder,” Schnabel says. “We usually go with apples and bananas or sometimes oranges or canned fruit. In the summer, we’ll do cantaloupe and watermelon on occasion if we can get them in bulk bins.” The pears were provided thanks to Harvest of the Month, a program launched last summer that brings one local seasonal fresh fruit or vegetable to state prisons each month. It’s a collaborative effort among the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the University of California, two national nonprofits and local food hubs that pool farms’ harvests to serve large institutions. It kicked off with three CDCR facilities—the Solano prison, California Medical Facility and Folsom State Prison—and is increasing by three more quarterly until October 2025, when all 33 adult institutions that serve more than 95,000-plus inmates will be covered, officials say. Program benefits inmates, small farms, local economies Story by Linda DuBois • Prison photos by Fred Greaves Spork Food Hub photos by Evett Kilmartin, courtesy of UC Regents From farm to prison
California State Prison, Solano inmates, from left, Justin Romero, Patrick Range and Ramon Tejeda discuss how much they’re enjoying the local farm-fresh pears they received in their brunch.
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