A lower cost-per-meal offer to feed inmates prompted Warren County supervisors to change food service providers Monday.

Sioux Falls, S.D.-based CBM Food Services will take over food preparation at the jail for $1.23 per meal.

Baton Rouge-based ABL Management, which had been the county’s jail food contractor since 2005, was retained as a backup in case the winning offer cannot be completed. Its offer was $1.34 per meal.

All food is provided by the company, which also employs most of the staff for preparing meals consistent with federal guidelines for daily nutrition. A staff cook oversees food preparation on-site in the jail kitchen while trusties load trays of 3,000-calorie meals delivered to each cell.

The contract begins Feb. 1.

Previously, the county had budgeted about $180,000 annually to pay and provide food and supplies to two cooks to work inside the jail — work now handled by the private vendor. The contract also covers food for those held at the youth detention center and the holding center for mental patients.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com