Joe Pyrah

"Great, we have to choose between hospital food and jail food."

It was said in jest, but it was the truth for the Meals on Wheels and senior center food program run through the Mountainland Association of Governments.

The provider of choice, after 23 years using Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, is now the jail. So starting Tuesday, 1,000 meals a day will be assembled at the Utah County Security Center in Spanish Fork.

The move was a cost issue, says Scott McBeth, MAG director of aging services. While it will cost $50,000 more a year than the expiring contract, the jail will be making the meals for $30,000-$50,000 a year less than what UVRMC proposed for the new contract.

There's an added benefit to the Utah County Jail in getting the contract: a profit.

Meals actually cost about $2 to make, leaving a 50-cent profit. That's $129,000 a year.

"Most of it will probably go to pay off the bond," said Commissioner Gary Anderson about the newly completed $20 million jail expansion.

Anderson, who has tasted jail-produced food during tours or special events, said he doesn't worry that inmates would do nefarious things to the meals.

"There's more chance that if I were cooking for the seniors that they'd get poisoned, because I'm a terrible cook," he said.

McBeth said he doesn't have any concerns over inmates preparing meals for seniors.

"I see an absolute commitment from Utah County to do a quality meal," he said. "Personally I'm delighted that there's a few of those individuals that want to learn some of those skills."

Davis County, which also uses inmates for senior meals, has been happy with the service, says health department spokesman Bob Balew.

Dorothy Clark, though, is sad to see the switch.

Clark has helped prepare the 1,000 meals each weekday at UVRMC for its entire 23-year run. Now 73, she was on the tray assembly line Friday morning chatting about the change. With plenty of friends among the seniors actually eating meals, she gets an earful about what's good and what isn't.

Liver: out. Drumsticks: in.

"When you're old like this, you know what the seniors want," she says about herself with a laugh.

Over the decades she has also seen a change in the palate of the customers. While they're still mostly a meat-and-potatoes crowd, there are more and more requests for diversification. The menu has changed to include some Asian- and Hispanic-oriented items. (Not a single call for a vegetarian meal, however.)

There's a science to building the meals, and plenty of individuality. Some can't chew meat, for example, and need it ground up. Others can't have salt.

Jail inmates will be preparing customized meals as well.