The Day of Quesadillas

We have heard from our incarcerated friends that food is a way to build relationships in prison. No surprise, since sharing a meal is a great way to build relationships outside the fence as well!

After a podcast episode with our friend Dylan, in which he mentioned the power of a "SPREAD" to bring people together, our Compassion Team decided to make it possible for them to share a meal with all 100 guys in their pod. (Episode 25, "Shared Meals, Shared Challenges," link below, in case you missed it.)

Yup. All 100 guys. Because if you leave anybody out, it can be seen as nefarious. If only some have access to something special, those without that access may become violent in order to get what they want. The way to be sure that sharing is allowed is to give every resident in your pod an equal share of anything special.

Our team added money to Dylan's and J's books, making it possible for them to order ingredients from commissary over the course of a few weeks, getting enough to make quesadillas in the pod's air fryer for everyone. Originally, the plan was a Christmas feast.

But commissary order system had a glitch, and then commissary supplies ran low for some of the ingredients they needed. And so forth. And so on. You get the idea.

But they kept at it, and finally word got out that they needed a few more items for the feast to happen...and guys stepped up and shared out of their personal stashes of food. 

Finally, on January 26, they had everything they needed. The guys who had agreed to help prep and cook got started at 4:00 a.m. Because the air fryer only lets you make one at a time, and because they had to work with challenges like morning and afternoon Count (when everyone must go back to their cells while the whole resident population is accounted for), they finally cleaned up at 5:00 p.m.

Around the pod, they had hung signs that said, "Casa de Quesadillas Day, a gift from PrisonCare!" They reported back to us that guys spent all day asking them to tell our team thank you. A couple of long-timers said they had never seen anything like this, ever.
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Mid-day, J was in a meeting with his boss, and guys kept popping their heads into the office to say, "Sorry to interrupt...J, thanks again for the quesadillas!" After the third guy interrupted their meeting, his CO boss said, "What is the deal with the f***ing quesadillas?" J explained, and she cocked her head to one side like she was thinking really hard. Then she said, "You fed the whole pod? You guys are really something. I'm confused."

Dylan and J, PrisonCare's inside Board members

I have a dear friend who regularly encourages us to "live questionable lives." 
By that, he means that we should live our lives with such love in action that it makes people wonder why we live the way we do, and maybe ask us about it. 

The "questionable cooking" behavior that our incarcerated friends showed in sharing their ingredients, prepping, cooking, making signs, spreading the word so no one missed out, and passing along our team's love with every quesadilla led to a LOT of questions from people in both kinds of uniform. J said that he and Dylan got a lot of practice sharing the PrisonCare elevator speech by way of explanation!
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Everyone on the inside matters.
Quesadillas can communicate love.
Sharing food brings people together. 
It's better when no one is left out. 
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