Communication arts students are cooking up ideas to raise money for the department to move to Sanford Hall in 2014.

Students planned “A Taste for Southern,” which is a tailgating themed cook-off, to help fund and purchase new broadcasting equipment for the studios that will be located in the new building, Haley Walton, sponsorships chair and senior public relations major, said.

The cook-off will be held April 27from 11:30-2:30 p.m. in the parking lot beside the J.I. Clements baseball stadium.

“The tailgating foods will range from hamburgers and hotdogs to apple pies, with one team named Georgia Southern’s top chef,” Emily Glass, senior public relations major, said.

Only judges will get to taste the food. The four judges are Reedi Hawkins, Miss Georgia Southern 2013, Morgan Love, Homecoming Queen 2012, Gordon Hunter, marketing director of Georgia Southern University Athletics and Marvin Sterling, executive chef at Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Savannah.

Along with the cooking competition, there will be music provided by 91.9 The Buzz, a raffle, face painting for kids and corn hole. Many local businesses will come out to support the communication arts department by giving away raffle prizes.

The cook-off is a challenge between teams of businesses, families, or students to showcase their best tailgating foods and share traditional tailgating dishes.

The department of communications arts will provide tables at the event and Ellis Meat Market will give all contestants a 10 percent discount on meat supplies for the cook-off.

The team that wins the cook-off will get a sneak peak of the broadcasting work by GSU’s multimedia communications division through their very own cooking show.

The first place chefs will recreate their winning dish in a 30-minute cooking segment on the show “Statesboro Cooks.” The cooking show airs on channel 99 and will be produced by multimedia communication students under the direction of Tyson Davis,multimedia communication professor, Davia Woulard, sponsorship chairman and senior public relations major, said.

Walton said, “We are very excited for this event because the communication arts department doesn’t have an annual fundraiser event, so we are trying to lay the foundation for future students to make this event even more successful.”