Muscogee County jail inmates without hot meals for 30 days

A mobile kitchen designed to serve inmates at the Muscogee County Jail during floor renovations is finally up and running.

The kitchen, consisting of three trailers, rolled into town from California last week. The first meal was served Monday morning for breakfast.

All the meals are packed into clear plastic bags; no hot food included.

“We’re trying to get it so it’s grab and go,” said Muscogee County Sheriff Donna Tompkins.

Tompkins said the jail kitchen floor had become a health hazard and needed immediate attention. She said the mobile kitchen, which will be used while the main kitchen is closed, costs about $54,000. But that doesn’t include meals.

The city also approved an additional $15,000 for a possible extension if the project can’t be completed within 30 days.

“All of this is done so the total kitchen floor can be renovated,” the sheriff said in an interview with the Ledger-Enquirer. “We saw that as a health safety risk.”

One of the trailers is used for food preparation and the other two for food refrigeration and storage.

On Monday, Tompkins showed a sample of the breakfast menu, which included cold cereal, milk, apple juice, a piece of fruit and two sandwiches, with the peanut butter and jelly pre-packaged. Coffee is served separately.

A sample of the lunch menu included fruit, chips, sandwiches, cookie and juice. The Sheriff said the dinner menu would be similar.

“That’s generally what breakfast, lunch will be like, and we anticipate that being for at least the next 30 days,” the Sheriff explained. She said there was a little problem Monday morning with a power chord, and lunch could not be served from the mobile facility. But she didn’t expect dinner to be affected.

“... Ultimately it is up and running,” she said. “We started this morning feeding this menu.”

This story was originally published February 5, 2018 at 3:04 PM with the headline "Muscogee County jail inmates without hot meals for 30 days."