A Discussion On School Vending Machines

By Jocelyn Davidson


The phrase vending machine is one that is used to refer to a machine which sells items to consumers without necessarily using a cashier. Some examples of things that can be sold using these devices are snacks and beverages. They can be installed in public institutions like hospitals and schools where many people can access them. Many people however debate the issue of having school vending machines. Others support their installation while others think it is harmful for the students. Here are some pros and cons of these selling machines in educational centers.

Some of the advantages include the issue of time saving because the students will not have to spend time moving from places to others looking for something to eat. For students, it is important to save time if they want to get good grades and this cannot be achieved if they move out of the schools to look for food. Most machines usually have the most snacks that people like.

Many school organizations also like the automatic vendors because other than retailing the snacks, they may be used to do other school transactions with ease such as payment of school activity fees. They may also be a perfect way for the organizations to enhance healthy eating habits among the scholars. The healthy foods can mostly be purchased if they are priced reasonably.

The arguments shown above make it look like the hawking machines have more pros than cons especially to the scholars. It is essential to first deliberate on the other arguments of the discussion before making a conclusion since there is a significant number of disadvantages. The issues illustrated below are examples of disadvantages of setting up vending machines in schools.

The real reason why these devices are installed in the first place is to earn profits. Many school authorities only consider the profits part and they forget about the health of the student. The usually make deals worth millions of dollars with certain companies to sell their products. In such cases, the students are likely to eat only the unhealthy foods.

Study shows that the cases of sugar related illnesses in children have been increasing drastically over the years. Some of these illnesses include diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and also arthritis. This has made some states to even ban completely the move to install the automatic vendors especially in learning institutions.

Most vending machines bring in a lot of money for the companies that own them. It will be unfair to force them to remove them from schools because it is a good market for their products. For this reason, the best move will be to control the kind of items that they sell to make sure they are only selling goods that are not harmful to students.

It is also important that authorities make it their responsibility to educate the children about healthy living and the foods that they should eat and those that they must avoid. If they understand the dangers of taking the junk foods then it will be easier for them to control their intake.




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