Bringing Better Nutrition to Oregon Prisons

When Beau Staun-List BA ’25 learned about the extent of inadequate nutrition in Oregon’s prisons, she couldn’t look away. Driven by a belief that everyone deserves access to nourishing food, she decided to join Aidan O’Connor BA ’23 and 12 other L&C students and alumni to help found Nutrition INSIDE in November 2024. The nonprofit partners with farms, grocery stores, and food recovery groups to reroute surplus food to correctional facilities—tackling food waste while feeding those too often forgotten.

Beau Staun-List BA '25 joined Nutrition INSIDE alongside other founding members and director Aidan O'Connor.
Credit: Suhail Akram BA ’24Staun-List, an environmental studies and French double major, says that Nutrition INSIDE’s goal is to redirect surplus food to “supplement nutrition, improve the quality of the food that is served in correctional facilities, and work toward making the experience of being imprisoned less detrimental for the mind and body.”

O’Connor is the current director of Nutrition INSIDE and a former environmental studies major and entrepreneurship minor. As close friends, the two have volunteered together in community organizing for the past year with Growing Gardens, a Portland-based nonprofit.

The Seeds of Nutrition INSIDE

The idea for Nutrition INSIDE took root during their volunteer work and O’Connor’s internship with Growing Gardens over the summer of 2024. The organization “provides garden education and resources for communities, schools, and adults in custody,” explains Staun-List. As an intern and through work with The Farmlink Project, a food waste organization, O’Connor noticed how there was a lack of access to fresh and appetizing foods in Oregon correctional facilities.

Nutrition INSIDE operates under the auspices of the Growing Gardens Lettuce Grow Program, which has garden education programs in all 14 prisons in Oregon. “The Oregon prison system, just like the United States prison system, has been affected by mass incarceration,” says Staun-List. “The rise in prison populations has put a strain on the quality of care and the experience of being imprisoned.”

Aidan O'Connor BA ’23 is the current director of Nutrition INSIDE.O’Connor explains that the idea for Nutrition INSIDE began in prison gardens, “talking with people about the food they missed—real food, food that reminded them of home, of being seen. Everyone had some version of the same story: that food in prison makes you feel less than human.”

That idea stuck with him. “I’ve had short periods in my life where I struggled to find food that nourished me,” says O’Connor. “But this—years of no choice, no access to anything that makes you feel strong or healthy or cared for—is something else entirely.”

O’Connor saw these impacts and brought together the Nutrition INSIDE team to form a grassroots organization. “The truth is, I didn’t found Nutrition INSIDE—this was built by incarcerated folks, friends, mentors, orgs, and even correctional food service managers.”

Staun-List says their mission feels important to being both an Oregonian and an environmental studies student. Her passion for food, cooking, and feeding people is what originally inspired her to join Nutrition INSIDE. “I’ve always had a want to do more or feel like I was contributing to a larger movement outside of just being a student or an employee.” Her senior capstone project was influenced by her work with the organization, where she researched the issue of food access in Oregon’s prison system through individual experiences and possible methods for improvement.

Flourishing Partnerships

Nutrition INSIDE currently partners with 11 organizations and donates consistently to three state prisons. “We hope to be expanding this network out even further,” says Staun-List.

Forming these partnerships is very hands on, beginning with dozens of calls. “Most went unanswered or came back with a ‘we don’t do that,’” says O’Connor. But the team members persevered. Their first delivery was 600 persimmons from Portland neighborhood trees and donated by the Portland Fruit Tree Project. ”Nutrition INSIDE was born from that moment—from connecting dots between waste and need, between harm and care.”

Nutrition INSIDE volunteers do all the work, including picking up and bringing the food directly to facilities. Early on, O’Connor relied on other team members.“I literally couldn’t have done a single delivery alone. I didn’t even have a car,” says O’Connor. “Lucy Mougin picked me up in her truck for our first food recovery mission.”

The grassroots organization primarily donates produce such as fresh vegetables to supplement the nutrients often missing from prison diets. Dave’s Killer Bread, a second-chance employer, is one of their main partnership companies. They provide nutritious and fiber-rich bread to Nutrition INSIDE. Dos Hermanos, a Portland-based bakery, and Portland Microgreens are two other organizations that also donate to their cause.

As of April, Staun-List reports that “we’ve rescued and donated about 14,000 pounds of food, which is really amazing.”

Roots in L&C’s Inside-Out Course

Many of the team members at Nutrition INSIDE have taken Associate Professor of History Reiko Hillyer’s Inside-Out class at Lewis & Clark, which they view as a transformative experience in seeing the realities of the American prison system.

Staun-List believes that this initiative is a natural extension of the experience they had in Hillyer’s class—an opportunity to not only act on what they learned but also to continue deepening their understanding of the injustices of mass incarceration.

“L&C really taught me how to engage across differences to find common ground,” says O’Connor. “In our work, we often collaborate with people we don’t fully agree with—and that’s not just okay, it’s essential. Those relationships make the work stronger.”

A class that changed everything for O’Connor was Critical Perspectives on Development, taught by Associate Professor of Sociology Maryann Bylander. “That class taught me to take an ethnographic approach to our work—to truly understand the problem before jumping to solutions. It reminded me to be guided by goals created by the community, not for them, and to accept criticism.”

O’Connor emphasizes that “none of this would have been possible without the support of others.” Staun-List shares the belief that the spirit of generosity expressed by the L&C community is what has made everything possible.

That’s the kind of community Lewis & Clark gave me,” says O’Connor. “I truly don’t think I could’ve found it anywhere else.”

Continued Growth

Staun-List says that “the goal is to have a network across Oregon, where surplus food can get to those who need it.” By the end of the summer, Nutrition INSIDE will be serving six correctional facilities with a hope to reach every Oregon prison in three years.

Through their Food Is Care Campaign, the Nutrition INSIDE team has raised $21,670 to help continue their operations. Staun-List explains, “We’re hoping to raise $50,000 so the project can continue through the end of 2025” and maintain a strong foundation.

“We all have a choice—to tune out or to tune in. And once you really see what’s happening, especially in prisons, you can’t look away,” says O’Connor. “The real work, the real freedom, comes from caring about people, over and over, even when it’s not glamorous or convenient. And that’s what we do at Nutrition INSIDE—every single day.”

Nutrition INSIDE Inside-Out Prison Exchange