Do-it-Yourself Vending
Machine Makeover
Welcome to Stonyfield Farm’s Do-it-Yourself Vending Machine Makeover Guide! Want to offer your students healthier snack options? Any vending machine can become a healthy vending machine if you know where to start. By using this handy guide, you’ll have the tools you need to successfully transform your current vending machines into a healthier option!
We’ve learned through experience that if it tastes good, kids will eat it!
Let’s get started!
1. Get Your School on Board
Are you a parent? A student? A school board member? Speak with school administrators or food service directors to get their support. For a successful make-over, you’ll need school-wide involvement of administrators, vendors and students.
2. Review the Product List
It’s easy to replace high calorie items with those that are organic and all-natural, and which fit nutritional guidelines. Use this product list as your shopping list. All of the organic and all-natural products on the list meet California SB-19 guidelines, which are:
| | No more than 35% calories from total fat
No more than 10% calories from saturated fat
No more than 35% sugar by weight |
The exceptions to these guidelines are products containing naturally occurring fats (no added fats), such as nuts and seeds. These are, however, guidelines, and you should defer to your school or state's regulations, if any. Need to know if your current snack(s) meet the SB-19 guidelines? Click here for a snack calculator.
Check with your current vending provider to see if they offer these snacks. Can’t find what’s on the list? We know that all products are available from United Natural Foods Inc..
Not sure about chips vs. pretzels vs. granola bars? Click here for a few simple plan-o-grams to follow. Remember – kids love variety! Be sure to take into consideration the age of your student population, as tastes may vary.
3. Involve Students in Choosing the Products
If at all possible, before you finalize your plan-o-gram, get a small representative group of students to make the selections with you. Purchase some sample products and review choices with them – the more involved they get in the decision, the more ownership they will feel in the idea.
4. Host a Sampling Event
Sometimes kids are reluctant to try new things. Consider giving students a preview of what will be in your machine by ordering extra snacks and giving away free samples prior to “unveiling” the machine.
5. Build Some Excitement!
| |
Conduct a Student-to-Student Marketing Campaign |
| |
Want to convince a student to try something new? Get another student to do the convincing. Special marketing projects such as posters, videos, etc., created by the students will help build excitement around the new snacks. Students at a school in Santa Barbara dressed up as fruits and vegetables and performed an original healthy eating rap song for their classmates; in Brooklyn, students gave away prizes to anyone who purchased an item from their healthy vending machine that they had specially marked on the back as being a winning selection; and in New Hampshire, one school had a student dressed in a cow costume visit classrooms to encourage healthy eating! |
| |
Launch the Grand Re-Opening of the Machine |
| |
Invite parents, teachers, school board and community members to the great unveiling of your ‘new’ healthier vending machine. The local newspaper or TV station might even be interested in the positive steps your school is taking. |
| |
|
Click here to see a sample vending machine filled with products.
Click
here for a complete list of products (subject to change without notice).
Think your kids are eating healthy snacks?
Our friends at California Project Lean have produced a snack food calculator to find out if your snacks meet California SB-19 guidelines.
Before making over your vending machine, a few things to consider:
- Does your School Board or School Administration support healthier foods in your school system? Click here to read some common objections.
- Do you know what your school's nutritional guidelines are?
- What foods are currently sold in the lunch program, vending machines, school store, and a la carte line?
- What foods are currently sold in the lunch program, vending machines, school store, and a la carte line?
- What healthy foods would you like to be sold in your school?
- Who is your current food distributor? Does this distributor carry healthy food options?
- Who is your vending machine operator?
- What are the contractual obligations, if any, that your school may have with distributors or food and beverage companies?
- What is your school's food budget?
Have Fun!
Click here for Frequently Asked Questions.
Please note: Stonyfield Farm is not in the vending business, therefore we do not sell/supply vending machines or snacks directly, nor can we project or guarantee profits based on sales from any machine. |
