Each year the Board of Supervisors accepts bids from food vendors who want to provide meals to guests of the Jefferson Davis County jail, and each year the Supervisors have a hard time comparing as they say “apples to apples.”

A solution has been found, they hope.

At Tuesday’s board meeting, attorney Wes Daughdrill presented a new format for the bid sheet. “I’m hoping this will take a two-hour process and boil it down to a few minutes,” said Daughdrill.

Prisoners at the county jail receive three meals a day: breakfast, a sack lunch and dinner. The Mississippi Code allows the Sheriff to contract with a local caterer or restaurant owner to bring in food for the prisoners. The current contract is held by Sip n Eat Family Restaurant in Bassfield.

The newly-restructured bid form is based on USDA dietary guidelines. With help from Pam Johnson Armstrong, nutritionist with the MS State University Extension Office in Prentiss, a measure of uniformity has been developed in a standard format based on 2,200 calories a day with grains, protein and fruits and vegetables.

“I want us to be able to look at a dollar figure” said Daughdrill who described the difficulty of the former bidding process where vendors listed actual food items.

Vendors who submit a bid form must also have a backup plan in case of emergency.

The advertisement for bids for county and separate road district supplies is located in the legal section of this week’s edition of The Prentiss Headlight (see item 13).