Florida Prisons Offer Vegan Meal Options to Inmates
Vegan meal options aren’t always easy to find (even in four-star restaurants) but behind bars seems an even less likely locale for cruelty-free options. Surprisingly, however, Florida’s Department of Corrections (DC) offers vegan meal options to all prisoners, statewide—and has for decades.
Approximately 800 inmates are currently opted in for the herbivorous options, says McKinley Lewis, communications director for Florida’s DC. The vegan options were first enacted in the early to mid-1990s.
As far as the food itself, “Our vegan menu is based on a four week menu cycle,” Lewis tells LatestVeganNews.com, and a sample day’s worth of meals includes:
Breakfast
2 oz of peanut butter
1 ½ cup of grits
4 oz of fruit juice
¾ cup of lyonnaise potatoes
1 cup of a breakfast beverage
1 cup of coffee
2 pk of sugar
4 pats of vegan margarine
Lunch
1 cup of dried beans
2 cups of rice
½ cup of greens
½ cup of vegetable salad with 2 tablespoons of vinaigrette dressing
½ cup of canned fruit
1 cup of fortified tea
4 pats of vegan margarine
Dinner
1 cup of dried beans
2 cups of grits
½ cup of vegetable blend
½ cup of vegetable salad with 2 tablespoons of vinaigrette dressing
½ cup of canned fruit
2 cups of fortified beverage
4 pats of vegan margarine
Not a bad lineup of meatless eats.
PETA released a list of vegetarian-friendly prisons back in 2007, and while a few other prison systems offer vegetarian meals or select vegan options, vegan meal plans aren’t common. Maricopa County, Arizona’s jail dig go fully vegetarian back in 2013, and they’ve seen costs drop ever since.
Maybe one of these days Florida will follow Maricopa’s lead and create an all-veg facility. In the meantime, kudos to the Sunshine State for its forward-thinking attitude in this arena.
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My boyfriend was put in jail a week ago… He fasted the first 4 days because they took that long to switch him to the “vegetarian” menu. But he’s still eating SO little because they still give him things that could contain milk and eggs. He eats his five and beans and like one piece of fruit a day. The jail seems to refuse to answer all his questions about the food (whether such and such item contains eggs or dairy) they just kind of dance around the subject and never give him a straight answer.
Is it legal to withhold the nutrition facts and ingredients list of what they’re feeding them?
Hopefully the judge will let me bail him out on Monday… But we’re looking at some serious starvation mode if he gets time.
(He is in there for possession of over 20grams of marijuana, a felony in Florida)