Inmate feeding service bids for the Panola County jail were reviewed by supervisors at their regular meeting Monday in Batesville, and Bim Bam Catering was once again awarded the contract to supply meals at the detention center.

BBC, owned by Tony Baragan, has held the contract for several years, consistently providing a low bid. The only other bidder for the two-year contract was Summit Correctional Services, a national company that provides inmate meals and advertises its meal as “food that drives positive behavior.”

The BBC bid did not claim to have meals to improve inmate behavior, but did offer to provide meals at $2.50 per inmate, based on 90-99 inmates, and $2.37 per inmate, based on 100-109. The jail usually has about 100 inmates, on average.

Summit’s bid was about 20 cents higher per meal. Supervisors also considered that Summit’s bid included providing all paper goods for meals service (plates, cutlery, napkins, cups) while BBC proposed to split that expense with the county.

Supervisors would have waited a week to think about the proposals, but the current contract expired on Nov. 9 and Barragan had been providing meals under his expired contract for three days when the board made the vote.

Supervisor Chad Weaver was the lone nay vote, saying he would rather study the full costs before voting to accept the low bid, with the paper supply caveat.