Students in Downing Student Union sampled a wide variety of healthy food options from restaurants on campus with approximately 25 restaurants for the second annual Taste of WKU event Wednesday night.

Brandi Breden, registered dietitian for WKU, organized the event around healthy meal plan options on campus with help from volunteers.

Abby Watkins, Bowling Green, who volunteered, said the event was about educating students on the options available for eating healthy on campus.

“We’re equipping them with the right resources to make healthy choices” Watkins said.

Taste of WKU began three years ago with a walking healthy food tour but the event had a humble beginning. Breden said only eight people attended the first tour. She asked herself what she could do to make the event easier for students to attend.

That was the beginning of Taste of WKU and the stationary event where students could sample healthy campus foods in one place. Since she moved the event, Breden has attracted a larger crowd, with close to one thousand students in attendance last year.

Breden projected the same number of participants or more for this year’s event.

Many of the restaurants on campus were present for the event, including Bene Pasta, DaVinci’s, Red Zone, Popeye’s and many others. Students could take a card to each station, have it marked that they visited there, and then turn their card in for prizes once they had visited 10 stations.

“I think this is extremely important because, at home, I always had my mom to cook after school,” Freshman Kess Ballard, Louisville, said. “Here there’s something around every corner. It’s a hard transition.”

Along with the restaurants at the event, Taste of WKU had stations for the WKU Office of Sustainability, WellU, WKU Resource Conservation and the Student Dietetics Association to promote more than just healthy dining options.

“We want to promote the overall healthy,” Breden said “It’s not just about eating foods.”

Reporter Kelsea Hobbs can be reached at 270-745-6011 and [email protected].