Sorry, this content is not available in your region. CHRISTMAS dinner is for many the best part of the festive season – with delicious turkey, pigs in blankets and roast potatoes among the most popular options. But have you ever wondered something different for christmas dinner those locked up in a maximum-security jail will have for dinner that day? 17 per day is spent on meals – many would have thought that the Christmas dinner would not be something festive.
However, according to a Freedom of Information request to two Leicestershire prisons, even those spending the holidays behind bars will enjoy a special meal that day. The inmate’s menu will have several changes and will offer various options for the big day, according to Leicestershire Live. HM Prison Gartree is a Category B men’s prison in Market Harborough where a large number of inmates are long-term prisoners serving life sentences. All options will be served with roast potatoes, sprouts and parsnips with gravy. For dessert, inmates will enjoy a Christmas pudding and single cream. Prisoners will have a snack pack for dessert. And a lotus biscuit for dessert.
Inmates usually have a rice pudding for dessert. HM Prison Leicester is a local men’s prison, on Welford Road. It holds people on remand to the local courts, as well as sentenced prisoners. All meals will be served with roast potatoes, sprouts, carrots and gravy while prisoners can choose between fruit pudding and vanilla sauce or fresh fruit for dessert. Quiche Lorraine salad or a vegan sausage roll salad. They will all be served with potato wedges and baked beans and prisoners will have a mince pie or fresh fruit for dessert. The Christmas Day menu varies from prison to prison depending on the budget.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: “Meals in prisons over Christmas are paid for from within the existing budget and at no extra cost to the taxpayer or the prisoners. What is spent on food per prisoner per day, and the breakdown per meals, is ultimately a decision for each Governor and their catering team as part of the devolved prison budget. Food is a big part of Christmas, but there are lots of different versions of a Christmas dinner. Some people want a plant-based dinner because they’re vegetarian or vegan, other families combine cuisines from different cultures and background with the special meal, and for some, they simply don’t like turkey!
So what do you prefer to have for your Christmas dinner? Would you eat a bug burger? How does my diet affect the planet? Could lab-grown meat be the future of food?
Newsround presenter De-Graft’s family is from Ghana, which means one specific type of Ghanaian food is at the centre of his family table on Christmas day! But the centrepiece of the table is jollof rice! Meanwhile Shanequa’s family meal has Jamaican influences. We always have rice and peas. It’s a Jamaican dish that’s basically rice cooked with kidney beans and coconut milk.
I will always pile my plate full of it! What was the best bit about your Christmas dinner? Sameena says: “We all love traditional home cooked Indian food in our family but everyone is busy, and only a few of us are good cooks, so Christmas is a time when we can actually get together and have it. So we either put a spicy Indian spin on a traditional British Christmas dinner or opt for something Indian like biriyani! And we have to make sure there’s lots left over for anyone in the family who’s working on Christmas day too. But Nina, Newsround’s newest presenter, has had fussy siblings to deal with!