At my prison, we started to feel the effects of COVID-19 in April 2020. This was the time that we started getting meals in a clamshell: the plastic-foam devil.
COVID ended to some degree or another Sept. 6, 2022, after our last quarantine. We had been going back to the chow hall on a regular basis. I liked sitting at a table to eat. I hated eating back in the unit, sitting on a chair with no table, or standing at my locker.
Then, on Sept. 24, 2022, the chow hall broke.
We thought it was an earthquake. The whole floor shook. Apparently one of the support I-beams broke from water damage.
We have not eaten there since.
They brought in a semitrailer that has two grills, two kettles, a tilt skillet and six ovens. All the hot prep for our meals is conducted there. The other prep was first done in the non-condemned side of the chow hall, and is now done in a converted classroom.
Because of the heat and storage issues, our breakfasts are in a paper bag with dry milk, dry cereal or an oatmeal pack, a couple sweeteners, a bread product (typically cake or bread) and a piece of fruit.
Our lunches and dinners have been served in plastic-foam clamshells every day for over a year.
That totals about 1,850 clamshells every day, 677,000 per year.
When opened and stacked up, 10 of them are 1.5 inches tall. In our time using them, the stack would be close to 1.5 miles tall. This doesn’t include the pandemic years.
A mile and a half.
Apparently some plastic foam can be recycled, but it seems ours is not. Only metal cans are being recycled.
I asked several food service workers about the total of 1,850 trays per day, and they all confirmed that number is on the conservative side.
The plastic-foam devil will be with us for a while longer, as no solution for the chow hall is forthcoming — and they have also started serving our breakfast trays in clamshells too.
I really do miss sitting down at a table.
