Eating Lunch At The Northeast Correctional Center

Once you clear security and enter The Fife and Drum Restaurant at the Northeast Correctional Center in Concord, Mass., you are ensured a decent meal. Lunch is served daily at the bargain price of $3.21 and set in a cafeteria-like area peppered with linoleum floors and card tables.  

NPR reports the restaurant provides culinary training for the inmates, who rotate jobs every five weeks. Education comes in the form of prepping, cooking, waiting, and cleaning. The program spends about $500 a week and serves a bevy of regulars. 

The food ranges from soup and salads to short ribs and potatoes, and dessert might include a pie or mousse.

Inmate and head chef Calvin Hobbes hopes working in the restaurant will be helpful in the future. "So when I do go home, I can say I got X amount of time of real experience — hands-on everything, feeding to the public, and I can cook pretty good. So, I should be able to get a position somewhere," he told NPR.

The best part? The inmates sit down and sample what they've made. Nothing like the taste of a hard day's work.