Healthy U Vending Machines: Providing Better Snack Choices for Children

Lindsay Lutz, Contributing Writer, Food Culture

When it comes to American food culture, vending machines are almost as iconic as fast food restaurants. The concept is brilliant:  insert money, get a quick snack or a cool beverage. A company doesn’t have to pay employees to be there all day. You don’t have to wait (unless you frequent a very popular vending machine). 

But, like fast food restaurants, vending machines raise concerns about child obesity, especially in children who have access to them in their schools. Even with a lunch break, kids will get hungry during the 7 to 8 hours they spend in school, and often this means a trip to the vending machines to have a snack that is high in fat and low in nutrition. 

When I was in school, the school administration solved this problem by turning off the vending machines during school. They were turned back on after school hours when the majority of students were at home (probably munching on equally unhealthy snacks from their pantries). Using this method, kids cannot be tempted with junk food, but the problem remains. Kids get hungry during the day and not eating has its own repercussions on children’s health. 

Healthy U offers another solution: change the content of the vending machines. Rather than featuring the typical junk food, Healthy U’s vending machines offer a variety of snacks with nutritional value. Based out of McHenry, IL, Healthy U was founded to provide people with healthy food options when they’re away from home. The offer high-quality products with no high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, partially hydrogenated oils or preservatives. Some examples of their products include nutrition bars, pistachio nuts, various snack packs under one hundred calories and fruit juices. 

Instead of buying a soda, kids can purchase a juice that gives them two servings of fruit in one portion. “Our vending machines are better from top to bottom, in every aspect.  The machines themselves are much more efficient than traditional vending machines.  We use machines that have high-efficiency compressors, LED lighting and technology that allow it to conserve energy when usage is low and students are not in school,” says Healthy U President T Hephner. “We also only provide natural, organic (when possible) and healthy choices for students in the machines.” 

These vending machines are already seeing action in local Illinois schools. According to Hephner, Healthy U has already installed machines in 4 large high schools with a total enrollment of about 9,000 students. So how can concerned parents see similar results in their children’s schools? Hephner suggests, “Take it to the top! When parents complain, school boards, superintendents, and principals listen.” Parents should voice their concerns if they want to see healthier options in their children’s schools. 

I see these healthy vending machines as having both an immediate and long-term effect. In the immediate future, kids will not have the option of candy or chips when hunger strikes. Instead they will have healthy snacks to choose from. But thinking to the future, healthy vending machines have the potential to change the eating habits of children. If more of these machines are installed in schools, children will become accustomed to health foods rather than processed foods for snacks. This will increase the chances of them choosing healthy snacks over unhealthy snacks when forced to make a decision. If they are familiar with a food, kids are more likely to choose it over foods that are unfamiliar. With around 16% of children ages 6-9 being obese or overweight in this nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, providing better food options for kids outside of the lunchroom is a step in the right direction towards lowering this staggering number.

Comments

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If someone do this in our place I will support it.

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easy to use and covered the dust and clean .

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i think the most important thing in this moment would be the fatness in our children, and for the moment, this Healthy U Vending Machines are fighting well the american food culture!