Students can sample food from each Dining Services location during the Taste of Kent from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Student Green Thursday, Sept. 18.

The Taste of Kent began eight years ago.

“We wanted to offer up an opportunity for students to know what is offered on their campus,” Richard Roldan, director of dining services, said, “and let students see the different venues.”

Roldan said that The Taste of Kent will give students an opportunity to see all of the food options on campus that they didn’t indulge in prior to the event.

“It kind of lets anyone else on campus, who does not understand what we truly offer, get to see what we have and see the variety and the amount of units that we do have on campus,” Roldan said.

The Taste of Kent will have 21 different Dining Services locations handing out samples.

“Everything from Prentice, Munchies, Rosie’s and Eastway to the brands in the Hub,” Roldan said.

The new dining locations for this year’s Taste of Kent are Auntie Anne’s and the food truck. The chefs from Dining Services thought about what they wanted to market from their unit specifically to give out as samples during the event.

“Eastway wanted to do something gluten-free to feature that they have gluten free options available,” Timothy Wright, assistant director of Dining Services, said.

“(The chefs) kind of went with their theme of what they wanted to represent and that’s how they created their menu,” Wright said.

Each year Dining Services chooses to serve 100 feet of specific food samples.

“This year, our executive chef Zouheir Kahwaji is doing hummus. So we’ll be doing hummus and tabbouleh,” Roldan said.

Students can tweet #TOK for Taste of Kent during the event, which is a new feature this year.

“I think it’s to get people excited about it,” Roldan said. “It definitely should enhance and help us get the awareness out.”

Roldan said close to 2,000 samples were handed out at every unit and 2,000 to 3,000 students got to enjoy the event last fall. Dining Services is prepared to serve the same amount of people this year.

 “Participation from the students is what we like to have because the students drive what we do,” Wright said.

Contact Carolyn Pippin at [email protected].