Skinny Pop popcorn, Krave pork jerky, Welch’s fruit snacks, and Lenny & Larry’s chocolate chip cookies are among the smorgasbord of snacks students have access to in the recently added Naturals2Go vending machine.

“I was contacted by a company and I saw this as an opportunity to give the students who would like a healthier option as opposed to some of the other items in the vending machines trying to give them more choice,” director of student nutrition Matt McCarty said. “It’s a smart machine that they can interact with. They can read the nutrition information on each product by just clicking on the product and it shows up on the screen, so they can make a more informed choice if they so choose to.”

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The school is not aligned within the national school lunch program, so it is not required to abide by the program’s nutrition guidelines.

“They will send a list of items that they have seen been successful at other schools, districts, or companies that they have been in,” McCarty said. “They generally will send me a list of items of what they’re gonna put in there and from there if there is something that I don’t think is something of benefit to our students I have the ability to say ‘no let’s take that out’ or ‘let’s try something different,’ but in general they fill the machines based on their nutrition ‘FitPick’ standards.”

The FitPick initiative established by NAMA (National Automatic Merchandising Association) has standard levels of calories, fat, sugar, and sodium that snacks must meet in order to pass their qualifications.

“I really like the new healthy vending machine because it adds a nice healthy alternative to the other snacks that we get,” junior Brady Duke said. “It’s also cheaper because I know in a lot of the other vending machines it is $1.25 for a bag of chips, but it’s just a dollar for a bag of Veggie Straws or a brownie.”   

The most popular item in the machine has been the Nutella & GO! snack packs. The machine’s success is not determined by its comparison to the other machines, but by its own sales. The machine’s purpose is not to replace the other machines.

“We are still evaluating the success of the machine,” McCarty said. “So far it has been pretty good. I think we would keep the machine because of the healthier options that the students have the ability to choose.”

Junior Abby Yaegar is a weekly vending machine visitor who sees the machine as a benefit to the dietary limitations of the student body.

“[I like the healthy vending machine because] it just has different snacks than the usual ones do,” Yaeger said. “The regular drink machines are what I go to most often. I think it’s a good option for a lot of kids who are on special diets and can’t eat the stuff that’s in the vending machines, so I think it’s a good option.”

McCarty sees a possibility of putting in other Naturals2Go machines in the other schools in the districts if the high school machine is successful.

“We are looking to put in panini’s like get some panini grills and offer made to order paninis for the students,” McCarty said. “I don’t know if this will happen this year, but this is on my list for the plan for the future as well as salad bars in all of the schools. One thing that we will have towards the end of the year is digital signage, so we will have T.V. monitors at all the different serving lines.”