Cooking for 200 is no small task

Photo by Erica Yoon Carter County Jail cook Samantha Coleman and jail trusty James Chambers prepare tuna fish sandwiches during lunchtime for the inmates.

  By Abby Morris-Frye
star staff
amorris@starhq.com
  While many Americans are finding it an increasingly difficult task to prepare three meals a day for their family, imagine the task of preparing three meals a day for more than 200 people.
  That daunting task is one that faces the cooks at the Carter County Jail everyday. The jail kitchen is staffed by two full-time cooks and one part-time cook who works on weekends and on holidays.
  "I have two inmates that help me prepare the meals for all three meals," said Samantha Coleman, who works at the jail as a cook. "Our day starts at four in the morning and ends at eight at night and these inmates work the whole shift. The guys that come down here work very hard. They have about a 16-hour day and they work 16 hours a day seven days a week. They don't get a day off like we do."
  On the day that Coleman spoke with the STAR, she showed us the menu for a typical day's meals for the inmates. For breakfast that day they are given four ounces of fruit, two pancakes, syrup, 2 boiled eggs, grits and milk. For lunch on that day's menu, the inmates received a tuna salad sandwich and an orange drink. For dinner, they received a chicken patty, mashed potatoes, green beans, two pieces of bread, vanilla pudding and milk.
  According to Coleman, the basic inmate's diet is based on a 2,000 calorie a day diet but the diets for some of the inmates vary from the basic diet. "We have inmates who are diabetics or are pregnant or have other conditions and they have special diets," Coleman said.
  The inmates also get special meals for holidays such as Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. According to Coleman, one of the local churches usually donates a traditional Christmas dinner to the jail to serve to the inmates and then on Thanksgiving the jail kitchen prepares turkey with the trimmings for the dinner meal and on Easter inmates receive the traditional ham dinner.
  Cooking on such a large scale has had its impact on Coleman. "Now I can't go home and fix a regular meal because I'm used to cooking for 200," she said as she laughed.
  One of the hardest parts of Coleman's job is trying to stay within budget for the kitchen. Another difficult part of the job is trying to plan ahead for meals for the inmates because of the ever changing number of inmates and lack of storage space for the kitchen. "Because of the fluctuation in the number of inmates one day you may have 180 inmates and the next day you may have 220," she said. "The jail was made for a hundred people and on average we have 200. Anytime I've had a jail inspection I've never been written up for cleanliness or other violations, it has always been for inadequate storage space. This kitchen is not much bigger than your average kitchen in a home.
  "We prepare approximately anywhere from 600 to 650 meals a day out of this kitchen."
  Coleman has a very definite theory about working with the inmates under her supervision. "I treat each and every inmate the way I want to be treated," she said, adding that she has worked for the jail in the kitchen for four years and has never been threatened by an inmate or even had so much as "a fuss" with an inmate. "I think if you treat someone the way you want to be treated you'll get more respect."
  All of the trustys who are allowed to work in the kitchen are misdemeanor inmates who have "some time to pull" according to Coleman, who added that they prefer to use inmates who have longer jail time because of the training that goes into preparing an inmate to work in the kitchen.
  Because of the amount of time she spends with the trustys assigned to the kitchen, Coleman says that she often forms friendships with the trustys under her supervision. "I give most of the credit to the inmates because they work hard and they have long hours. A lot of times when you get these inmates in here that have a lot of time and you work with them you get close to them and sometimes you're as close as their families," she said, adding that she has even had former inmates come back to visit her after they get out of jail. "I make it a point that if they have a problem I sit down and listen to them. Sometimes they have family problems and if they need advice I try to help them.
  "I always try to give them a good talking to and try to keep them from coming back too. I also try to witness to them and I tell them they need to get their lives straightened up and get into church. I think God put me in this position to witness to these guys."