As you walk around the hallways of school, you see a vending machine at nearly every corner. During the day when students are hungry and need a quick snack, they stop at the vending machines because they’re convenient.

    These vending machines are primarily filled with empty calorie junk foods soda, candy, and chips. They don’t offer many healthy options, so students and teachers have no choice but to eat and drink their products.

    According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood obesity now affects 17% of children and adolescents in the United States; this is triple the obesity rate from only one generation ago in 1980. Our generation isn’t looking too good, and if we continue eating the way we do, our lives will be shortened due to health problems. When schools provide unhealthy foods for students by placing vending machines throughout the building, they are serving as advocates for childhood obesity and poor eating habits.

    Foods offered in vending machines aim to make a profit, so it is in the company’s best interest to include desirable snacks even if they are not healthy options. In our school situation, the money goes back to the county and vending-machine companies. A better option is just selling food in a school store where the money goes back only to the school. This benefits the students as well as the school and allows for healthier food options if the school commits to this idea. This is a win-win situation.

    At Paint Branch, the school store sells chips for fifty cents a bag, whereas the vending machine sells them for sixty-five cents. This may be only a fifteen-cent difference but, as more and more students purchase chips, the profit increases for the vending-machine companies and county. The school store is not only a good option because it is fully school-related and benefits only the school, but it also has the option to offer things that are not just empty-calorie snacks.

    Students can bring lunch and snacks from home, and fruits and vegetables are always an easy, healthy option. Fruits are also sold in the school’s cafeteria. Vending machines rarely offer fresh fruits – none of the ones at PB offer it – because the food is confined in a machine for about a three-week period and freshness becomes an issue.

    People who love the idea of having vending machines in school may say that there’s the option of having healthy vending machines, and the easy access to vending machines saves time. Some students rely on vending machines for lunch and after-school snacks. Vending machines are filled with empty-calorie, processed foods. It’s going to be hard for the companies to find snacks that are healthy, aren’t expensive, and still attract the students to want to purchase them.

    The next time you have the option of vending machine, food from home, or school food, just think to yourself, "Where is my money really going?" and "Do I really want to fill my body with these empty calories?" The answer is pretty clear.


CON: (Haregnesh Haile)

    As my eyes flutter and my head droops I hear it – that same question that I hear all too often as my head is enveloped in a haze of exhaustion, "May you enlighten us today, Ms.Haile?"

    Staying awake in the morning is a seriously tedious undertaking. Of course, eating a good breakfast would prevent my classroom slumbers, but how can I when Paint Branch will end their use of vending machines in the new school next year?

    Significant controversy surrounds what is perceived to be unhealthy food in schools and children starving during class, something that hinders them from learning properly. "Vending machines are the main causes for obesity!" "Ban them!"" Abolish them!" How about we calm down, take a few inhales and exhales, and then look at what vending machines provide the students at Paint Branch.

    Extracurricular activities and school programs are paid for by vending machines. Funding for extracurricular activities isn’t cheap, and a majority of high schools in the U.S. have vending machines in large part due to the money they bring in to the school district; money that is then doled out to local schools.

    Even though the food that is sold through vending machines is aimed at making profits, the profits inevitably benefit the school and, specifically, its students. The Health Policy Tracking Service of the National Conference of State Legislature, reports that schools earn as much as $100,000 from vending-machine contracts annually, and many schools have contracts worth millions of dollars with vending companies. That money isn’t being steered into a single person’s pocket; it is being evenly distributed from the schools to the companies and to school-sponsored activities and programs.

    Section 4205 of the Affordable Care Act amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which pertains to the limits on vending machines. The Affordable Care Act clarifies existing regulations that Montgomery County schools have to abide by regarding nutrition for everything that is served in the school – this includes the cafeteria and vending machines. For chain vending-machine operators, the number of calories and other important nutritional information must be disclosed on items, though this is not available until after purchase. All consumers have the ability to survey the calorie count, the fat, the salt, and other nutritional information and make their own decision. No one is forced to eat or drink anything they don’t want to.

    Some argue that vending machines are harmfully affecting their children and that their children will grow a sweet tooth and acquire dangerous eating habits. You can’t censor children their entire life, but teaching them right from wrong in regard to healthy eating habits makes the biggest difference.

    As such, a child’s eating habits start at home. Parents - instruct your children on how to eat healthy and they’ll resist the temptations at school and bring food from home. And children, if you have the choice to eat a cinnamon bun or a granola bar, just make the decision you feel is right. Or, if you do make the wrong choice, at least do a little exercise afterwards.