Offering healthier food options at a lower cost

Rich Palzewic

Staff

July 14, 2025

ONEIDA – Located inside the Oneida One Stop at 3120 S. Packerland Drive in Oneida, Co-owners Apache Danforth and Jamie Betters said Off the Trail aims to offer healthier breakfast and lunch options at an affordable price – and so far, the response has been positive.

“We’ve gotten a lot of support from throughout the Greater Green Bay area,” Betters said. “The growth has happened a lot quicker than we anticipated. I think it’s also based on the concept that things are affordable.”

The co-owners said Off the Trail offers cold-press juices and breakfast and lunch options.

“Breakfast options include sandwiches, burritos, parfaits, pancakes, protein and energy balls, etc.,” Danforth said. “Our lunch menu includes seven different salads and seven different gourmet sandwiches. For now, those are $7. We want to keep prices low. Maybe prices will change a bit in the future, but for now, that’s our plan.”

Danforth said the most expensive thing on the menu is Off the Trail’s gluten-free pancakes.

“Those are $10,” she said. “We also offer sides like cold pasta salad, tuna salad, etc.”

Betters said the concept of the business – which is co-owned by her, Apache, Brian Wilson Jr. and Jeremiah Danforth – “is not really about putting huge profits back into our pockets.”

“Yes, we need to be conscious financially about the business, but we’d rather slowly increase [prices] if we have to – if and when we need to,” she said.

Betters said having four co-owners has worked out well.

“We’re not saying because we have four co-owners that we are going to jack up the prices so we all get a pot of that,” she said. “We’re not thinking about that – at all. We want to make sure our business is flourishing, and we are supporting the community.”

Though she and Apache are “more upfront in the business,” while Brian and Jeremiah are more silent owners, Betters said that doesn’t mean they aren’t involved.

“They might not be here day to day, but they are not silent in their support of the business,” Betters said. “It’s been a blessing to have four of us – with different backgrounds and experiences – come together to make Off the Trail a reality.”

Wilson Jr., Apache Danforth said, is a concrete contractor by trade, while Jeremiah owns a trucking company. 

How it all began

During the slower construction season in the winter, Danforth said both Wilson Jr. and Jeremiah got the idea to start a laundromat on or near the Oneida Reservation.

While scoping out a location, she said the two men came across a spot next to the Oneida One Stop at the corner of S. Packerland Drive and Waube Lane in Green Bay.

“It wasn’t quite right for a laundromat, but it had a huge commercial kitchen,” Danforth said. “They thought, ‘Look at this amazing, 1,700-square-foot kitchen.’ It has an amazing dining space and location right off Packerland Drive – right across from Schneider.”

From there, Danforth said they reached out to the Oneida Tribe to see if the space was available.

“It was available, so we started working with Oneida Retail, the managers of the property,” she said. “They were so supportive. Those talks took place around January. We made a business plan and took it to Bay Bank, and they funded us. It was quite a stringent process, but Oneida Retail and the Oneida Nation really helped it go as seamlessly as possible.”

When the place was officially theirs, Danforth said the space didn’t need much work.

“We had to clean and power wash the kitchen because the business that was here before us was a barbeque, so there was a lot of grease,” she said. “We painted the dining area, and the furniture was already here. When we did the walk-through, we could envision what it would look like. There’s also an outdoor seating area. Everything we envisioned when we opened has happened – it’s kind of scary.”

Opening April 12, Danforth said the goal was to begin operations before the 2025 NFL Draft in Green Bay.

“We were a bit worried about how we were going to serve our regular customers with the draft in town,” she said. “If we got a ton of draft-goers, we knew we could accommodate them, but it really didn’t get that busy for the draft. We did okay during the draft and met our quotas, but we really focused on our regular customers, and that worked out great.”

Danforth said Off the Trail also caters and plans to begin offering food workshops, canning classes, cooking classes, etc.

“We’re not trying to just be a market on the corner – we want to collaborate with others and help,” she said. “I think we complement the other businesses in the area.”

What’s in a name?

Danforth said the name of the restaurant – Off the Trail – came to the co-owners during the initial tour.

“Doing our walkthrough, one of us said, ‘All we have to do is get customers from off the trail,’” she laughed. “The Packerland [biking and walking] Trail goes right by the restaurant. A light bulb went off, and that’s when we decided on the name.”

With the trail nearby, Danforth said that’s a perfect example of hitting one of Off the Trail’s target markets.

“This is a great spot for people who are maybe just starting their wellness journey,” she said. “We’ve gotten several customers who have stopped in from off the trail. Sometimes, people will park here, do their workout and then stop in after to replenish.”

From seed to table

With a decent-sized garden on site, Danforth said it was always their goal to eventually offer a seed-to-table approach with their ingredients – though at first they weren’t quite sure how it would come to fruition.

“Oneida Retail really supported it,” she said. “I think initially, there was concern about who was going to keep the garden up, or was it going to get overgrown? Jamie and her husband have a background in agriculture, so they know what they are doing. Eventually, it will be a true seed-to-table process for many of our ingredients.”

Danforth said a highlight of the garden is the big patch of white corn.

“White corn is a big part of the Oneida Nation,” she said. “We plan to make corn soup, corn mush, cornbread, etc. To have our own plot of white corn will not only be good for our business but also our community. We have a produce garden as well – tomatoes, lettuce, beans.”

Betters said some ingredients from the garden should be available soon.

“We are growing Stevia in the garden, which helps us give options to people who might be diabetic,” she said. “Stevia is a natural, zero-calorie sweetener and a popular sugar substitute. Also, right now, we can harvest things in our garden to add to our salads. We are excited about the size of it. I’m used to full-blown, huge gardens, but to have a manageable space will be great. We’ve utilized every available inch in there.”

Betters said nutrition is the focus of the Off the Trail menu – and with “respect to our culture, we have a lot of indigenous plants in the garden.”

Danforth said garden tools were purchased with the help of Feeding America and the Great Lakes Intertribal Food Coalition.

“We received a $10,000 grant to help out,” she said. “Feeding America works with the Great Lakes Intertribal Food Coalition, and we applied for a grant and used that money to get our garden tools and to help get ready to do the Elder Food Box Program in Oneida.”

Danforth said the elder food box program delivers food to tribal elders.

“The elder food box uses indigenous producers,” she said. “It might be wild rice, dried fish, buffalo meat and produce. The first elder food box recently went out, and we did 2,000 bottles of our Triple Berry Moon to fulfill that order. Getting the grant really positioned us for more long-term products. There are eight elder food box days throughout the year, and we have five of those days.”

Continued growth

Danforth said because things are going well and Off the Trail has been well received by the community, the four co-owners will have to think about hiring additional help soon.

“Right now, it’s just me, Jamie and my daughter, Yokalasha,” she said. “We have a few other helpers who might come in during the weekend, but we’ll be expanding and hiring more people – maybe even someone full-time to do our juicing because that’s very labor-intensive. All of the cold-press juices are made on site, so I’m thinking we might need to hire someone exclusively for that.”

Additionally, Danforth said they will be supplying two area Oneida One Stop locations with breakfast burritos.

“We will also need more help because we have to fulfill those Oneida One Stop orders,” she said. “We’ll be offering those on Monday, Wednesday and Friday… And because of the upcoming elder food box dates we have to do, that’s another reason we’ll need more help.”

Hours for Off the Trail are 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

For more information on Off the Trail, visit its Facebook page.