Don’t call them chicken; the staff at the Taylor Hall was willing to try something new.

At 11 a.m. Wednesday, Taylor Dining Service will welcome Tyson Sunset Strips, a new line of chicken products with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

Sheila Epperson, assistant director of student housing, said the ribbon will be cut on the Taylor side of the cafeteria entrance at 11 a.m. on Wednesday by either Mark Hudson, director of university housing and dining or Jody Horn, director of residence hall food service.

From here on out, the cafeteria will only serve Tyson chicken products.

Tyson representatives will be at the grand opening to pass out free samples of chick ribs and different types of chicken strips after the ribbon cutting to allow students into the cafeteria. Free giveaways such as mugs, mug “huggies” and “squeezy chicken toys” will also be passed out by representatives.

“It’s all for the students,” Epperson said. “We want students to know about our new strips and have a lot of fun at this event.”

Students can also top of their free chicken samples with a special dessert. Epperson said the cooks at Taylor Hall baked a huge marbled cake decorated with a chicken and the words “Welcome Sunset Strips” to celebrate the occasion.

The free samples will continue until all 10 cases – 100 pounds of chicken – are finished, but Epperson said she hopes they will be able to provide free chicken samples until 2 p.m. when Taylor’s lunch service closes.

“We are really excited about this and tried to make this a big deal,” she said.

The quality of the new Sunset strips, which include Tyson’s Home Style Pepper Steak House Strips and Peppered Strips, are of much higher quality than some of the chicken strips served by Taylor dining hall in the past, Epperson said.

In addition to better quality, she said that students will also benefit from Eastern using only Tyson chicken.

She said that before the university bought from one prime food vendor, many students would like a certain type of chicken one week, but the university could not constantly serve the same preferred brand.

Eastern’s new contract with a single food vendor should make food selection more uniform. Horn said the new Tyson chicken selection is part of Eastern’s prime vendor contract with Allen Foods.

When the university sent out proposals for prime vendors, they asked for name brand products and Allen Foods agreed to provide the cafeteria with Tyson chicken.

“We were happy to get Tyson because we know (them as a) leader in chicken products,” she said. “It is a quality name brand and people are familiar with it.”

Tyson has always been popular with students, Epperson said, adding that now students will have a better idea of what chicken products they like and dislike.

“We know now what we are getting and we know we are getting good quality,” she said.