A 12-pack of ramen may seem like a trivial grocery store purchase for some families, but for Daviess County Detention Center inmates, it means a lot more. On Monday, Joe Welsh donated 670 boxes to DCDC thanks to donations from the community.
This marks the 5th year in a row that Welsh, the executive director of Friends of Sinners and a member of Matthew’s Table church, has hosted the ramen drive.
Welsh said that when he was an inmate in DCDC, the Christmas season was always the hardest time for him and other inmates. He said oftentimes, inmates don’t have someone to check in on them or have the money for their own box of noodles.
“Depending on your situation, not every inmate has someone on the outside that is sending them money or supporting them. There are some people here who have nobody [because] everybody’s given up. They never get a ramen noodle [in commissary], and so just being able to give them a case of ramen noodles is huge,” Welsh said.
Speaking from his own experience in jail, he said having a pack of 12 noodles was comfort and assurance that he would have an extra meal over the next few days.
Direct donations of ramen can’t be accepted due to security protocols, so the donation drive was held to raise funds to purchase the noodles new; roughly $1,500 was raised and they noodles were purchased at Kroger on Starlite Drive
Welsh and Jailer Art Maglinger said they still had to undergo a security check to ensure the packages were not tampered with.
Once inside, Maglinger said the inmates get creative with their concoctions to ensure the noodles spread as far and long as possible. That includes mixing it with other commissary foods such as crunched-up Cheetos, and even turning the noodle bricks into tortilla shells.
“This donation a huge deal for them at Christmastime, especially when they’re absent from their families. It can be very meaningful for them that somebody took the time to give them even the smallest gift,” Maglinger said.
According to Maglinger, the ramen noodles aren’t the only gifts the inmates will receive this year, with the Salvation Army donating gift bags to each inmate.
The jail currently has just under 600 inmates; however, Maglinger said that at any given time, they could have roughly 20 transient inmates. Ordering 670 packs ensures that all inmates receive noodles, and they still have excess to add to their collection.
