Serving meals to inmates on insulated trays is one of the most common meal delivery methods in the country for local jails. It’s simple and requires only the tray and the meal delivery cart. We would recommend you strap your trays to the cart because it stabilizes everything, and it holds the trays tightly together so you increase your temperature retention time. This system has been around for quite some time, as has most of the trays and carts that are needed to serve meals this way.
The Cook’s Brand Grizzly Tray was introduced in the 2006 Correctional Buyers Guide – fifteen years ago! The four compartment design is unique because the two large compartments and the two smaller compartments are vertically aligned in the tray. This differentiates the Grizzly from the Gator Tray, introduced in 2005, because the Grizzly tray needs to be stacked with the tray facing the same direction each time. The Gator tray is faster to stack because it is non-directional. But this difference has a purpose in the Grizzly Tray. When Grizzly Trays are stacked, you always have the hot foods stacked in the same place, as well as cold foods. This acts like a thermal column with hot over hot over hot, and the same for cold foods. Hot foods stacked one above each other stay hotter. And cold foods stacked one on top of the other, also stay cooler longer.
There were already four compartment insulated trays and there were issues with these trays, but we know how to fix them. The Grizzly tray features one-piece construction with no seams to spit or crack. Grizzly trays are also fully foamed with insulation and built to last even in corrections. If you’re using a Grizzly Tray, take a picture of it and let us know how you like it.
