Sunday 7 December 2014

Advantages Of School Vending Machines

By Claudine Hodges


The word vending machine is used to describe a device that sells small retail materials automatically since there is no cashier involved. Most vendors are used to sell fast foods and snacks in places that people can be found. Examples of such places may include work places, schools and also hospitals among others. Over the past few times, many people have been debating if it is really advisable to have these devices in learning institutions. This is the reason why the advantages and disadvantages of school vending machines need to be analyzed.

One of the most self-explanatory advantages is the fact that these devices can help save a lot of time. School going children need to eat all the time to stay healthy and in order for them to do this food needs to be available. Having these appliances will save them the time they could have otherwise used to move long distances to get food. If the device has all the snacks they like then this can be achieved.

The management of the school can also make good use of these appliances rather than just using them to sell foods. The devices can come in handy if there are any uncomplicated transactions such as activity fee payments. The devices are also a good way of encouraging children eat healthy foods by making sure no unhealthy food is put in them. The foods must however be sold at a reasonable cost.

The above arguments may make it seem like these devices have nothing but advantages to both the students and the school management. Before making any decision about the installation of these retail devices, it is important to measure the advantages and the disadvantages and determine which ones outweigh the others. For this reason, we learn about the disadvantages of having these devices in schools.

Truth be told, several managements that purchase these devices only have cash in mind. They only deliberate the profits they will probably make rather than consider lives of the kids. Many of them actually make expensive contracts to have the harmful foods delivered to the institution every day. This makes the fitness of students to be at high risk.

Most of the foods sold in these institutions are considered unhealthy because they are made with a lot of fat and sugars which are the key things that are responsible for obesity. Aside from obesity, they are able to cause other illnesses like diabetes, blood pressure problems, arthritis and various other lifestyle illnesses. This is the reason why very many people discourage these machines. They have even been banned in various states.

Vending machines are a source of income for many companies and also schools therefore it is not fair to ban them completely yet we can regulate the kind of items that will be sold in them. School managements can easily evade having their vendors banned by promoting the sale of affordable and healthy foods in their institutions. This way both the companies and the students can be happy.

Most kids are likely to not like the healthier foods therefore the schools must make an effort to educate them on matters of healthy living and why it is important that they stop eating junk foods. Once the kids have understood why they need to live a healthy life they will help to make a change.




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