When you start to plan your prison, you will sooner or later have an idea of how many prisoners it will house. But then first questions may occur:

- how many cooks are required to feed all of my prisoners?
- how many cookers and fridges do they need?

For the beginning you can start with this:

Kitchen

• 1 cooker can hold 2 pots or pans of food
  
• 1 pot or pan of food contains food for 10 meals
  
• 1 cooker needs 1 cook
  
• With 1 fridge you can serve 2 cookers

Canteen

• 1 serving table has 4 slots, and each can hold up to 20 meals. So max 80 meals (at the same time) on 1 serving table
  
• 4 prisoners can sit on 1 bench
  
• 1 table accommodates 2 benches for 8 prisoners (plus possibly 1 chair at each head of a table for max 10 prisoners)

The following image may help you, plan your food preparation and distribution:



Don't forget to place a sink in your kitchen and maybe a few bins in your kitchen and canteen. (I will work this out, later.)

Of course, it depends on a few things more to get a good running food distribution. If you prison becomes more complex later in the game, you have to keep an eye on the following:

• It may be better to have more kitchens/canteens later in the game, depending on your prisons layout.
  
• Take care of short ways between delivery, storage, kitchen, canteen and, of course, your prisoners cells.
  
• Take into account, that you may need more or less cooks, depending on long ways or if you allow prison labour, so they can support your cooks.
  
• Beware that your prisoners have enough time to eat (and to get to their assigned canteen).
  
• Keep an eye on your settings in regime. Your cooks need a few hours to prepare all meals. Add some space between the mealtimes, to give your cooks enough time to do the clean up.
  
• If your prisoners are supposed to work in the kitchen, you possibly have to adjust regime, so that work time is set to when meals are being prepared.

I hope it helps you with building up your prison.
Any feedback and constructive criticism is welcome.


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Please take into account, that this guide was written over 8 years ago when Prison Architect was in alpha state. There may now be some criteria, that were not implemented at that time.

Nevertheless, I think that this guide can still be helpful, especially at the beginning of the game.

Thank you for reading!

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