If you are always hungry in prison, there are many ways to get more food or make what is available to you better. Here are some suggestions from a person who "was there".
Steps
Step 1. Understand the difference between having food in a cell and in prison
When you are in the cell you have less work to do because food and resources are predetermined. In the cell there are two ways to get food, the first is your meals (usually a breakfast tray, one for lunch and one for dinner). One way to get extra rations is to make a medical request stating that you are diabetic or underweight. In some prisons, it is possible to have a late evening snack such as a sandwich or fruit. In most cases, prison food seems purposely designed to be inedible.
The meal tray usually includes a portion of meat, a piece or two of bread, fruit and vegetables. Now that you know the 'ingredients' available to you, let's see how it is possible to cook them
Step 2. Use the main food source you find in prison:
canteen. This is where inmates with money can order alimony. Each prison has different menus and different limits on what you can order. Pasta soups are among the basic ingredients available almost everywhere. They are a classic of prison culture and there is no penitentiary that does not have them on the menu. Although these soups have different names from institution to institution, their substance does not change. It is a noodle soup to which various ingredients are added.
- Prepare a spicy soup with beef: prepare the pasta soup, drain the water and add the aromas. Cut some dried beef, some cheese, add some chips and hot sauce. It is very good indeed.
- Most of the time, each inmate takes a soup and an extra ingredient. They combine all the foods together in a single container and then divide the dish into equal parts. This also creates a bit of conviviality.
Step 3. Use boiling water for cooking
Since you do not have access to the microwave or other strong heat sources, hot water is the best solution for cooking in the cell. If the hot one is not available, hopefully there is at least the hot one. You often have the option of buying a plastic bowl with a lid in the canteen. You can put the noodle soup in this container, add hot water, put the lid on, take it to your cot and cover it all with blankets and pillow to maintain the temperature. This technique is quite effective, within 10 minutes the pasta is cooked.
Step 4. Try something new
For example, save the hard-boiled eggs from breakfast and mix them with a sachet of mayonnaise and some pickles that you can get from the canteen. Don't eat all the bread for lunch or dinner and you can enjoy an egg salad. You can do the same with cans of tuna that you can buy in the canteen.
Step 5. Make trades
Often you don't have money to shop, but you can swap your meal for another inmate's or, if it's a particularly popular dish, for three more "normal" meals.
- For example: a person gave you his lunch tray for a pack of spaghetti. But, if it were Sunday, you could get two pieces of coffee cake, cereal and eggs, or some savory biscuits with gravy, or a box of spaghetti and a bag of chips.
- Some of the most popular foods you can get in the canteen that are great bargains are candy, spicy potato chips and, even more coveted, instant coffee. A crafty inmate might order several of these products, and in the middle of the week, when everyone else is out of stock, he might make loans by giving a cup of coffee and requesting two in return.
Step 6. Use the packs
Another way to prepare your food is to use large potato chip bags or clean trash bags filled with boiling water. If this is not available, put the bag under the hot water tap and let it run for at least 10 minutes. If you're lucky enough to find cornbread, mix it with some water to make a dough. Use any tool at your disposal, such as a roll of toilet paper wrapped in the cling film of another food, to smooth out the dough. Fill it with the ingredients at your disposal and put it in a warm place to dry. Here is prepared a great "burrito".
Step 7. Be ingenious
As you can see, there are a lot of ways to eat when in prison, you just have to be very imaginative and use every resource. Here are a couple of other ideas:
- Work as a volunteer in the kitchen, you will have access to leftovers.
- If you have no money, you can run 'errands' to other inmates such as laundry, design postcards that they can send to their family or help them with legal research for their cases. If you are capable, you can get tattoos, cut your hair, clean someone else's cell, and much more.
