The first jail meal serving tray introduced by Cook’s is the Gator Tray, a four compartment insulated tray. It debuted on the cover of the 2005 Correctional Buyers Guide. One of the reasons we started manufacturing trays was that several of our customers using a tray with a very similar layout were having problems with their trays becoming water logged from quality issues. It was our opening into launching a new version of this classic non-directional four compartment tray. Since that time, we have sold nearly 3 million Gator Trays! We’ve also increased our prison meal tray offering from the Gator Tray into 12 Insulated Meal Trays, 8 Flex Trays which are exclusive to Cook’s, two Sentry Series Trays and seven copolymer or polycarbonate meal trays. We’ve also added Cook’s Brand tumblers, flatware, bowls, mugs and so much more to complete your meal serving needs.
The four compartment insulated tray is one of the most common trays used for jail or prison meals. One of the benefits to the layout of the Gator Tray is that it is non-directional. This allows staff to stack the trays quickly and easily as they come off the tray assembly line because they don’t have to think about lining the compartments up. Either way you stack it, the compartments will be the same.
Along with the traditional four compartment layout, Cook’s Brand had a Five Compartment Gator Tray. This Gator Tray features a ¾ height divider in one of the larger compartments. This divider let’s you use a large compartment as your bread department and included a vegetable compartment. The idea of the divider is that it will keep bread from getting soggy from vegetable water or other liquids or sauces that are part of the meal.
Gator Trays come in Brown or gray, four and five compartment layouts. They are extremely durable and feature one piece construction. We offer a 2-year “No Questions Asked” Warranty on these trays, one of the best available. We also do our best to always have these trays in stock and ready to ship. If you’re at a facility that’s using some of the 3 million Gator Trays that have been sold since introduction, take a picture of your meal and send it to us. We would love to see how it’s working for you.
