Prisoners Feed the Hungry

As hunger spreads, many states are relying increasingly on inmates for farming, "gleaning," and food bank assistance.  Prisoner assistance with stocking food bank warehouses, picking food from fields that might otherwise rot, or even planning and harvesting produce occurs through formal employment programs that states run mostly for non-violent, short-term offenders.  Free prison labor is a godsend for stretched food banks and state budgets alike, and prisoners gain needed work skills that may prove useful when they are released.

The article is very positive in terms of this skills-for-food exchange.  Assuming - and this could be a big if - that the prisoners are treated well in these manual labor programs, the examples of prisoner assistance and food bank gratitude from Ohio to Texas are a refreshing contrast to the reality of overcrowded, militarized, segregated prisons nationwide.  Institutions that we've starved of resources so desperately that prisoner training programs have been slashed left and right, contributing to growth of repeat offenders who languish on the inside and can't cope on the outside.  Please use the revolving door to your left, sir.

For the prisoners participating in these farming and food bank programs, I wonder how many of them have ever picked up a bag of food from a local bank, in addition to packing them up now.  Here's wishing them some success in translating what they've learned as they've done their time to fruitful employment and steady wages when they're out.  And many thanks to the incarcerated around the country who are helping us fight the scourge of hunger.

(Boxes of potatoes at the San Francisco Food Bank by a tree is nice)