Episode 212: The Reality of Carceral Nutrition Meals and the Hidden Punishment of Food
About the Podcast
For today’s episode, Clancy speaks with Heile Gantan. Heile is a Senior Program Associate with Impact Justice’s Food in Prison project, where she conducts research and creates programs across the country with various departments of corrections to improve the food environment and experience for incarcerated people. You won’t want to miss their discussion about the reality of food and nutrition in carceral settings, how food is used as currency, and how it can also be used as a form of punishment. Let us listen to what Heile shares about these topics. Enjoy the show!
About Heile Gantan
Heile Gantan is a Senior Program Associate with Impact Justice's Food in Prison project, where she conducts research and creates programs across the country with various departments of corrections to improve the food environment and experience for incarcerated people. Her lived experience with incarceration motivates her work as she understands firsthand how the food in these types of settings impacts not only an individual's health but their mental and emotional well-being as well.
Discussion Takeaways
- Heile's experience in the criminal legal system made her see the reality that there were no opportunities for incarcerated people to find ways to eat healthy food and find healing.
- Blind feeling is getting your tray through a metal slot so that you can't see who has prepared your food.
- Food is used as power between people who are incarcerated by using it as currency. There is an economy inside of carceral settings.
- In carceral settings, food is used as punishment. Incarcerated people who receive disciplinary measures receive certain food as punishment.
- Food dignity is the opportunity to feel like you can be the best person through the foods that you eat.
- Food dignity is the autonomy to choose what foods are right for you, whether through health or cultural relevancy.
#1 tip to improve access to healthy food
Those closest to the problem are closest to the solution. Empowering those with lived experience to lead the way creates real change.
Each week on the Food Dignity® Podcast, the Food Dignity® Movement’s Clancy Harrison hosts a wide variety of hunger experts and other people making changes on the frontlines. Join us as we dive deep into conversations that will change the way you think about food insecurity.
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