The Gator Grill Strives Towards Healthier Options for Their Menu
By: Ritwan Abdinor
Staff Writer
The Green River Gator Grill team is striving to achieve good healthy options for students of the Green River community.
Eating healthy is always a struggle for college students as there are not many options they can choose from. Green River’s General Manager of the Gator Grill, Tom Olander, and his team are hoping to change that by expanding their food menus so that there are healthier options. Olander started working at Green River earlier this January. Despite beginning this year, he and his team are already making some efforts in increasing more healthy options for students.
With the picante stations, stir-fry, wraps and the salad bar, Olander and his team are experimenting on a ramen noodle station to add to the list of healthy options in the school’s cafeteria. Although there are healthy options, most students don’t seem to enjoy eating them.
“We have to offer foods that students want and a lot of the foods that they want are not the healthiest options, such as fries, chicken strips and burgers,’’ Olander said.
He also mentioned that the least popular foods are sandwiches and wraps. He stated that, although many students lean more towards the tortilla sandwich wraps, not many students are fans of it as compared to chicken strips and fries.
Olander also works closely with the Daily Grind and experimented on evening foods which he hoped “would achieve more variety in the cafeteria.” Adding to that, he mentioned how students and faculty are looking for healthy food options in the evening. If this attempt proves to be a success, he aspires to incorporate those options in the cafeteria’s menu.
Besides the healthy options for students, students are now aware of how much calories they are taking in their bodies. Demetrius Crawford is the executive chef at the Gator Grill who is trying to make the school’s menu as healthy as possible.
“We are trying to stay away from trans-fat, making everything as fresh as possible and trying to bring local produce every day.,”Crawford said. “It is great that students are looking at their health and it is amazing how they are aware of what they are taking in their bodies.”
Crawford mentioned how he and his team are working towards making a diverse and cultural menu. “We are always looking for suggestions for what the students want,” Crawford said.
Trans-fat is all around students, vending machines, desserts and other processed foods. “The foods we prepare most of them don’t contain trans-fat,” Crawford said. “Foods like tortillas that we do not manufacture do contain some trans-fat, we usually don’t have control over that, but the majority of our food doesn’t contain trans-fat.”
Foods that have shortening or words like ‘partially hydrogenated’ in the ingredient list should raise red flags to students since these foods cause detrimental health risks to students in the long run.
“We try our best to incorporate foods that accommodate everyone,” Crawford said. As vegetarian and pescatarian diets are also included in the school’s menu.
Crawford states that the Gator Grill is a good place for vegetarians as they incorporate vegetarian diets in their specials, such as their ramen, which can be made vegetarian, their vegetarian tofu, and vegetable sandwiches and burgers. He also states the gator grill is always looking for more suggestions.
