History of Vending Machines in Schools

Today, vending machines in schools are rightly perceived as both an easy source of healthy snacks and drinks for children while at school, and a useful extra stream of income for increasingly financially hard-pressed headteachers and governors. 

But it hasn’t always been this way, and it wasn’t so long ago that vending machines were being seen as at least partly responsible for all manner of ills.

This month, we’re taking a look at some of the key moments in the history of vending machines in schools to discover how their image has been transformed over the last twenty years or so.

Early school vending – a dentist’s and nutritionist’s nightmare

Vending machines first appeared in schools in the USA in the 1950s and, while it’s hard to establish anything approaching an exact date, it seems that schools in the UK were slow to follow. That was probably because, until 1980, all schools had to provide children with free – or, at the very least, very affordable – and nutritious meals. 

For those children who did have the money to spend on snacks – and we’re mostly talking about private schools here – there was the well-established tradition of the ‘tuck shop’, where pupils could spend their spare pennies on what was often almost as wide a range of choices as they might find in their local sweet shop.

As school finances underwent substantial change in the 1980s, not only were free meals withdrawn for all but those from the poorest families, but schools could start to look upon the provision of food as a source of income. There was also a kickback against what was being perceived as the ‘nanny state’ and the suggestion that it shouldn’t be up to schools to ensure children were eating well.

So it was around this time that school meals began to provide what they thought children actually wanted to eat – chips, mostly – and vending machines started to appear in schools. These also sold unhealthy options – if you could find anything other than crisps, chocolate or fizzy drinks packed with sugar and tartrazine, you were doing well – but the rationale was that if the children were going to be spending their money on sweets anyway, it was better for them to do it on the premises where they could at least be kept an eye on.

Jamie Oliver wages war on unhealthy school meals

By 2006, national turnover from vending machines in schools had reached as much as £45 million every year. At the same time, it was estimated that almost 20% of our 10-11 year olds were obese.

The previous year, Channel 4’s Jamie’s School Dinners – in which TV chef Jamie Oliver railed against the poor quality and low nutritional value of school meals at the time – and his subsequent Feed Me Better campaign had focused minds in government on the problem. It also had an understandably negative impact on people’s perception of vending machines more generally and in schools in particular, with 80% of people in a survey saying that they should not be allowed on school premises at all.

That September, the new School Food Trust published a paper proposing a ban on confectionery, crisps and fizzy drinks in all school outlets, including vending machines. These new standards were phased in over the following three years, with “mandatory food-based standards for food other than lunch” being introduced in 2007.

A 2013 report on the effects of this – and subsequent – legislation concluded that it had had a generally positive effect on the provision of nutrition in schools.

Looking to the future

More than ever, we are aware of the long-term effects on our bodies of eating unhealthy food. We’re also aware that many children can’t be trusted to make healthy choices when given the freedom to select their own snacks!

Nevertheless, vending machines have successfully managed to come through the negative press in the early years of the century and can now be counted on to provide an almost entirely nutritious selection of food and drink options for our children.

In fact, our school vending machines aren’t just offering some of the healthiest snacks and drinks, they’re also among the most sophisticated of all our machines.

That’s partly because, as in many other areas of life, they have to adapt to an increasingly cashless society – good for most of us, not so much for the traditional lunch-money-stealing school bully – as well as providing for an ever greater demand for a more diverse range of dietary needs. Not just bound by government legislation on nutrition, those stocking modern vending machines also need to take into account our increased awareness of food intolerances, more diverse cultural requirements, and more and more dietary fads and preferences. 

And all this while also needing to cope with large numbers of users in small periods of time, with the vast majority of customers seeking to make their purchases at the same time during breaks. 

Here at Nu Vending, we supply, install, maintain and stock the very latest vending machines suitable for all kinds of businesses and organisations, including schools and other educational establishments in London and the South East.

If you want to find out how a school vending machine can benefit your institution, your staff and your children all at the same time, please get in touch with the team at Nu Vending today.