COVID-19, Rodents, Unpaid Labor: A Year in the Allegheny County Jail Kitchen
In many ways, the kitchen is the heartbeat of the Allegheny County Jail.
Forty workers at a time prepare food for more than 1,600 hungry men and women. Standing shoulder to shoulder, they transfer meatballs, applesauce and peas to trays, then load those trays to a big cart and send them up in the elevator. Pantry workers walk the halls, pods, and corridors to deliver that food to their neighbors’ cell door. Hands pass trays and cartons of milk. Bodies bump into each other behind the kitchen line. Workers feed empty trays to a giant dishwasher nicknamed “The Beast” and the process starts over again.