According to an inmate who works in the kitchen, when I complimented him on the chicken cutlets today he said, ” Thanks man, but those are courtesy of Stouffers’ “. It turns out that breading meat is too complicated to be left to the kitchen staff. According to him, most of the meat dishes that are meat with no embellishments (breading, in sauce like bolognase, etc.) are the ones that the inmates are allowed to prepare. The rest comes from the back of trucks that have missed an important appointment, as with a cargo ship, and need quick liquidation, or are over-orders by institutions. In those cases, the BOP often steps in. Thus, our windfall was the result of one such mishap.
