Gaia Daystar of Spork Food Hub in Davis, below, moves boxes of pears from Stillwater Orchards in Courtland to a truck that will deliver them and other locally grown pears to California State Prison, Solano. At far right, the prison’s inmate kitchen employees include the pears on brunch trays.
Grateful inmates One goal is to offer fruits and vegetables that aren’t commonly served in daily meals, such as August’s pluots and October’s persimmons—two fruits Range, who’s been incarcerated for 23 years, says he’d never even heard of before trying them. “These guys love anything new. It’s really special to them,” Schnabel says. “We try to look for opportunities to buy something that they don’t get in every single rotating menu. Harvest of the Month has really helped us with that.” Justin Romero, incarcerated for 14 years, says “getting something other than a banana or an apple” means more than people could imagine. “In the real world, you take it for granted, but here it matters enough to make someone’s day.” “Fruits and vegetables make any meal so much better—so, so much better,” Range adds. “A bell pepper and onion in a Top Ramen make such a big difference.” But he has an even bigger reason to appreciate a variety of fresh produce. “I have kidney failure, so I want the nutritional value to help with my condition,” he says, adding that he always reads the nutrition information on the posters about the featured produce item that’s included with each month’s delivery. And, he says he feels better when he eats more fruits and vegetables. “You feel the difference. It’s a big, big difference. “This Harvest of the Month program is what I’ve hoped for,” Range says, adding he had just been thanking Guadalupe Alvarez, the prison’s correctional food manager, for helping to bring in the program. “I told her it’s so appreciated.” Practical benefits The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, in general, is moving toward making prison life seem as much like normal life as possible, and that includes what inmates find on their meal trays, says Lance Eshelman, who, as the CDCR’s departmental food administrator, oversees all the state prisons’ food managers. “This program gives our staff the ability to say, ‘Hey, we see you. We see that you’re an individual’ … and it makes the population feel like their voices are heard.”
It’s helping state prisons meet the mandates of Assembly Bill 778, which requires that, by the end of 2025, at least 60% of food purchased by state-run institutions must be grown or produced in California, Eshelman says. “It’s taken some time and effort to train the institutions’ food services staff with a different mindset,” Eshelman says. “For years, the training has been, ‘Get the best price.’ I will say, though, that often the best price is coming out of Mexico … but there’s obviously value in getting a fresher product and supporting local farms and businesses.” The CDCR purchases more than $163 million in food each year, and Eshelman feels good about keeping more of those dollars in California. He’s focused now on “working with the local food hubs to figure out a price point that works for everybody. I think that’s our biggest hurdle right now.” Market for farmers The first food hub he worked with was Spork Food Hub in Davis, which has participated in Harvest of the
But as much as Harvest of the Month serves the nutritional and psychological interests of inmates, it also serves several practical purposes.
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