Fayetteville-Manlius High School wants to extend a program that provides it with a vending machine that sells carrots.
Chips, soda, and candy are staples of vending machines. But a new vending machine has given students Fayetteville-Manlius High School the opportunity to buy bags of baby carrots. F-M is one of two schools in the nation participating in the program, and early feed back has led the school to ask for an extension of the program.
"It's been very successful here. There's a lot of interest to still buy the carrots as an alternative," Greg Avellino, Associate Principal at F-M. "Although, you know, obviously the number [of sales] has dropped since the fist week." In its first week, the vending machines sold out all 320 bags. However, that number dropped below 200 the week after and continued declining, bottoming out 89 in its most recent week of sales. The bags cost 50 cents each.
Revenue Used to Further Help School
The program at F-M is part of a $25 million "Eat 'Em Like Junk Food" campaign launched by the baby carrot industry. The campaign hopes to eventually put vending machines in high schools nationwide. Local funding for the machine comes from Bolthouse Farms, which helped start the campaign.
Bolthouse provides the carrot vending machine and carrots for free and will put revenue raised from the sales back toward the shool's food-services.
"My understanding is that [the money] is going to be used to purchase a non-oil fryer. Again, just an alternative to [sic] healthy cooking," Avellino said. Such changes are small, but F-M Principal Raymond Kilmer points to the fact that it provides choices.
"It may not be changing the face of the high school cafeteria, but it's giving high schools another healthy option."
Photo courtesy of syracuse.com
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