Hero Certified Burgers on Elmwood Ave. is hosting its “Bengal Burger Contest” for SUNY Buffalo State students.

Students are able to design their own burger online to be featured as one of Hero’s new burgers. Grand prizes include a $500 gift card for the campus Barnes and Noble bookstore and $200 worth of burgers. The runner up prize is $200 worth of burgers. Students have until Feb. 12 to apply; the winners will be announced on Feb. 19.

“I’d been thinking about it when we decided to reach out to Buff State to put a new burger on the menu,” said Adam Sumlin, owner of the restaurant. “I thought, ‘Why not do a contest where students can build their own burger and get involved?’ We come up with new burgers all the time, the winner will act as one of our burgers of the month.”

The rules are simple. Students who want to enter the contest can apply on the Hero Certified Burgers website where they will choose which burger they would use, which bun, and a wide variety of condiments to create what they think would be the best tasting burger. The burgers will be judged on taste, unique flavor, ease of preparation, and nutritional quality.

While Sumlin looks forward to what this contest will bring to his business, he is more excited to see what this contest will bring to the students participating.

“Hopefully this will enlighten students and encourage them to open their own businesses or inspire them to be a designer or give students innovative ideas that they could be successful with,” Sumlin said.

Students who have entered or are interested in the contest are intrigued by the design aspect too.

“It seems pretty cool,” said Stenley Casimir, a junior math major. “Coming from the design perspective, it seems like a cool idea to reach out to the community.”

Buffalo State students are also excited for the grand prize of $500 to the Barnes and Noble bookstore as well. Sumlin chose the bookstore gift certificate as the grand prize to help students.

“I wanted to make sure the prize could help the winner education-wise,” Sumlin said.

Keith Chaney, a freshman biology major that is interested in the contest, is one of the students excited about the grand prize. Chaney claims he would make his winning burger “weird, but good weird,” and has ideas of what he would spend the gift certificate on.

“If I won I’d buy all the Star Wars stuff, a Buffalo State outfit with sweatpants and all, one textbook, and for Stenley’s birthday I’d take him to the bookstore and buy him a dollar’s worth of stuff.”

Sumlin plans on making the Bengal Burger Contest an annual event and starting the next contest at the end of this year, when he feels it will be opportunistic for students.

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