Even in the age of instant communication, sticky notes are still the communication-style of choice on campus.
“If people have a request we tell them to put it on the machines with a sticky note,” said Adrian Salinas, the Vend Alaska representative for UAF’s vending machines.
Vend Alaska services all of UAF’s vending machines, as well as many others across the state.
But that isn’t just a suggestion to students as to how they might see their favorite snacks in vending machines, or to make them feel like they actually have some power in what they eat on campus.
Statewide administrators have plastered the vending machines in Butrovich with pink sticky notes asking their colleagues to join them in trying to get healthier options.
“We had a comment at one of our meetings that we’re trying as a University to be healthier, and yet the vending machines aren’t very healthy,” Paloma Harbour, a policy analyst for the UA system, said.
Harbour asked who would be interested in vending machines with different options at September’s Statewide Administration Assembly meeting. Since then, she and a colleague have been working on changing the content of their vending machines.
“[Vend Alaska is] willing to, based on input, change what’s in vending machines, but if it doesn’t sell well, they won’t continue to stock it,” she said.
Vend Alaska provided her with a list of possible contents, and they’re working on surveying others about what options they would prefer. They’re hoping that a snack machine with oranges, apples, and maybe even sandwiches, is a possibility for Butrovich.
Just surveying their fellow administrators has been difficult, because the list of options Vend Alaska provided was rough, and incomplete, Harbour said. Some items in the vending machines are not even on the list.
The company’s website also provides a list of possible items, many healthier than those found on the UAF campus. V8 juice, SlimFast, unsweetened tea, oatmeal, tuna and crackers, and sandwiches are all listed as possibilities online.
Robert Holden, Vice Chancellor of Administrative Services, was not sure where in the process Butrovich administrators where, and said that all requests to change vending machine content must be approved by him. According to Harbour, he was the first person she spoke with, and he referred her to Vend Alaska.
Vending Machine contents are decided based on what sells, Salinas said. Every machine gets certain types of stock items. Snickers, M&Ms, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Starburst and Skittles are commonly among the stock selections.
Staff machines have different contents than those in dorms, Salinas added. Age is a factor in deciding what goes in which vending machines, so they vary across campus.
Recently, the Butrovich vending machines (there are more than four on the first floor) included those stock items as well as chips, cookies, jerky, and other snack foods, just in one machine alone.
Two more contained cold beverages (primarily soda, water, and juice), and a third served hot drinks (coffee in many forms, hot chocolate, and chicken broth) in cups decorated with pictures of playing cards in a drink-to-play version of poker (there are no prizes, it is merely sipping entertainment).
Another machine had a variety of foods that were more meal-like: frozen burritos, frozen dinners, and other microvable items.
The UAF campus also has multiple ice cream vending machines, one housed in Butrovich. Harbour didn’t mention changing that.
“Alaska sells more ice cream per capita than anywhere else in the United States,” Salinas said.
