Aramark worker fired for serving inmates trashed food

TITTABAWASSEE TOWNSHIP, Mich. — The Michigan Department of Corrections is confirming a report that its food-service provider, Aramark, served some food that had been thrown in the trash to prisoners housed in Saginaw County.

The incident occurred in October 2014 at the Saginaw Correctional Facility, 9625 Pierce in Tittabawassee Township. Chris Gautz, public information officer for MDOC, said Aramark fired the worker involved.

"I think they were meatballs or some sort of meat products," Gautz said Monday, March 30. "Obviously it shouldn't have happened. It's a health-code violation."

The liberal advocacy group Progress Michigan on Monday distributed emails it obtained through the Freedom of Information Act that appear to show correspondence between the MDOC and Aramark Correctional Services regarding Saginaw County prisoners being fed food that had come from the trash.

According to emails, on October 29, an Aramark employee at the Saginaw Correctional Facility discarded left-over food before the last half of a unit housed in the facility entered the chow hall.

Gautz said the food was thrown into a box that was lined with a clear trash liner.

After realizing there were more inmates to feed, the employee retrieved and rinsed the food, reheated it in an oven and instructed other inmates to serve it to them, according to the emails. The inmates refused and the employee and another Aramark employee served the food to the remaining inmates, the emails state.