Last Meal

Walls unit is the oldest prison unit in the state of Texas. Texas State Law states that no state execution may take place outside the City limits of Huntsville, Texas. Brian Price spent time as an inmate inside the Walls Unit in Huntsville, Tex., where the state's executions are carried out. His job assignment in prison was preparing dinner meals for the general population, a responsibility assigned to him because of his work in a pizza parlor as a teenager.

He explains his duty this way: As a dinner cook, I was asked to volunteer for the morbid task of preparing last meals requested by men and women condemned to die. This was a job that most of the cooks declined to accept, saying it gave them the creeps. I too had shunned the responsibility, wanting to minimize my contact with death row. But on one particular day there were no volunteers, so I decided that I would

The last meal is an ancient tradition, which some say predates the death of Christ. I always thought of the last meals I prepared as a version of the Last Supper, when Christ knew that he would die the next day. I took my job seriously, and it made me feel good that I was able to give the condemned at least a piece of a free world as they remembered it.

The meal requests were rarely complicated; many prisoners ordered food that they had eaten as children. I think that through their meals, they were seeking a small bit of comfort and courtesy. Food can take you back to a better time in your life, and it gave me comfort to give these dying men and women some comfort in their last hours.


For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." 25In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (1 Corithians 11: 23-26).

Our first meal with Jesus, I can hardly waite!