The Callaway County Jail is expecting a new walk-in freezer soon now that the Fulton State Hospital is no longer providing meals to the jail.
The Callaway County Commissioners and Callaway County Sheriff Crane are pooling funds together to purchase the new freezer, which will also require new electrical and plumbing work to become operational, Commissioner Gary Jungermann said.
Crane believes the project will cost around $14,000, but a freezer has not yet been purchased. However, since the jail is unable to store a week's worth of meals without the freezer, Signature Foods in Columbia, which is the new meal provider, is required to make multiple trips throughout the week.
"Stockpiling enough has been creating a little bit of an issue because they have to make more trips as the inmate population varies from day to day," Crain said. "If it's more than what was bidded then we'll have to pay for more."
The new service, Jungermann said, is saving the county between $7,000 and $8,000 a month on food expenditures. When FSH provided the meals, the county was spending between $20,000 and $21,000, but now that Signature Foods is providing the meals, the cost is down to about $14,000.
Last year FSH's Chief Operating Officer Marty Martin-Foreman contacted the Commissioners to tell them that they would stop providing meals for the jail the following year, Jungermann said.
This gave the Commissioners an opportunity to find meals elsewhere, which meant inmate complaints concerning portions from the FSH's heart healthy diet could be addressed. Although the meals were approved by a state dietitian, meals under the diet contained about 1800 calories, Jungermann said.
In addition to saving money, the Commissioners were pleased with other qualities of Signature Foods's meals.
"We liked that Signature Foods provided good meals," Jungermann said. "We felt they were the best money-wise, but this was the quality of meals we'd be getting on a daily basis."
Because the meals will be kept frozen and cooked in a conventional oven they are able to be served quickly and no meals will be wasted despite the fluctuation of inmate population, Jungermann said.
Martin-Foreman was unavailable for comment.