Dispatch: Cheap Eats, Prison Food

The May issue Dispatch asks whether it’s still possible to eat cheaply in Portland

But can it still be done? Sure, but you’ve got to dig deeper, pick your spots. We gathered 10 options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner where you can still get a delicious, super-filling meal on the cheap. (And tossed in five happy hours for good snacking measure.) Yeah, it’s always possible to grab a slice or cave for some goopy fast-food bomb, but there are better, more authentically Portland options out there. Dive in.

and pays a visit to the Cumberland County Jail.

I show up at the Cumberland County Jail at 4 a.m. on what is most certainly the darkest, coldest January morning of the year — registering at -8 degrees. I’m here to meet Richard St. Onge, manager of food services, as his shift begins.

Unlike the vast majority of correctional facilities in the US, the kitchen here hasn’t farmed out inmate meals to a large company like Aramark. It still maintains its own independent program, and I wanted to find out more about what that mammoth task must be like.

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