When picturing the school vending machine near the cafeteria, you would probably picture a couple of common items: Gatorade, granola bars and those really weird milk protein shakes, which is usually the last to sell out.
I certainly do!
Whether it’s using the morning walk to visit the vending machine for a quick drink or grabbing a granola bar with a friend during lunch, most students are somewhat familiar with said machine. A machine that I honestly think needs some change—more specifically to what it’s providing to paying students and what it could potentially use.
While on the topic of the contents of the vending machine, I thought it would be appropriate to conduct a quick survey.
How empty would you say the vending machine is from time to time?
Almost completely empty 60%
Somewhat empty 20%
Barely empty 20%
What do you usually get at the vending machine?
Granola Bars 18%
Muscle Milk Protein Shakes 0%
Gatorade 54%
“Nothing” 18%
Assuming the “nothing” category was simply students visiting the vending machine from time to time to accompany someone who would, the data emphasizes an almost clear loser when compared to one another. While Gatorades smoked the rest of the answers in a practical landslide, students were also asked their favorite and least favorite flavors of Gatorade in the machine.
What Gatorade flavor is your favorite?
Cool Blue 45%
Glacier Blue 20%
Fruit Punch 20%
Glacier Cherry 15%
What Gatorade flavor is your least favorite?
Grape 80%
Fruit Punch 10%
Glacier Blue 10%
Leading onto the last and probably the most important question given to each interviewee—the opportunity to add their own choice of food and or drink to the machine!
If you could add drinks and foods in the vending machine, what would you put?
Sophomore Selena Yusef, “Good chips and those little gummies.”
Sophomore Manahil Atif, “Soda, candies, good chip snacks.”
Sophomore Vivian Lonczak, “Something savory.”
Junior Emilia Alves, “Chips, Alanis, other things that taste good.”
Sophomore Sienna Leveille, “chips and cookies (stuff that people would buy).”
Sophomore Giana Rivera, “chips, candy, etc…”
Most had taken the question seriously, naming generic foods rather than specific brands. However…like most things…there were certainly an array of answers.
Sophomore Caitlyn Pezcka, “Kinder Egg or McDonald toy.”
Sophomore Lily Moore, “Sigma juice.”
Sophomore Alannah Saloio, “Skibidi Toilet surprise toy.”
After debating and a handful of unnecessary research, I thought providing a couple of legitimate additions toward our vending machine would be a positive note! These brands and general foods are based on the multiple answers given when asked what they would add to the vending machine’s catalog if given the opportunity to do so.
Starting off with the legitimate answers, the most similar…and technically legal…choices for the vending machine could consist of the already available options alongside Cape Cod Sea Salt chips, Welch’s fruit gummies, any generic diet soda, and Tropicana orange juice bottles.
By technically legal, I just mean that these are most likely the best choices we could pass by without facing any issues. Those issues being the state limit for calories allowed to be sold within a school-provided vending machine being a definite 200.
Cape Cod Sea Salt (small bags): 140 Cal
Welch’s Fruit Gummies : 70 Cal
Generic Diet Sodas : 0-7 Cal
Tropicana Orange Juice (small bottle) : 170 Cal
I hadn’t been able to find any good sweets that could pass by the calorie limit, most options consisting of bland snacks you probably would get from that one neighboor purposely driving children away from their door on Halloween.
As for other legitimate contenders for the vending machine, they follow in suit with the familiar caffeinated drink—Celsius. A drink any student within the cafeteria can buy that contains 200 mg of caffeine. This opens an opportunity for certain drinks, since Massachusetts allows high schools to sell drinks with the stimulant.
Alani : 15 Cal & 200mg Caffeine
Prime Energy (a substitute for Lily Moore’s “Sigma Juice”) : 20 Cal & 200mg Caffeine
Obviously I doubt the school would add any of these to the vending machine, just a couple of fun suggestions if they ever come to think about it! Although, I doubt it would hurt to just…I don’t know…get rid of Glacier Cherry. I genuinely don’t think I can handle accidentally buying one more bottle of that drink thinking it’s Glacier Blue…