Healthful Vending Machine

By: Yoko

Original source:  http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/05/28/186503168/why-healthful-vending-machines-might-hurt-the-blind

We can buy snacks easily by vending machine. Since obesity epidemic has been big problem in the US, Alissa keny-guyer, Oregon state representative, suggest that we should make a good environment for people to choose healthy foods.  She introduced a bill to change the contents of vending machines from snacks to healthy ones. She believes that this change will help people to choose healthful choice. However to operate vending machine is a good job for blind. According to Kevan Worley, director of the National Association of Blind Merchants, 2.300blind entrepreneurs go to work because of the Randolph Sheppard Act. Randolph Sheppard Act is a program which provides blind people with remunerative employment and self-support through operation of vending machines and this is the most successful employment program for the blind ever conceived. Now blind vendors are worried that this shift will take away their business. Finding employment is still difficult for blind today.

The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions is now in corporation with blind vendors and vending machine companies to avoid this problem. They are trying to find snacks that are not expensive and small enough to place in vending machine, and finding ways to distinguish these options.

One more thing that we have to think is that whether vending machines contribute to increase number of diabetes. Joel Kimmons, a nutrition scientist thinks that vending machines do no contribute negatively to the overall diet and therefor they do not contribute positively, neither.

 

I think vending machines have also have influence on global warming because they are working 24 hours, spending lot of electricity. Perhaps vending machines are used mainly for advertising items and we don’t really need it because we often have stores right next to the vending machines. I’m not sure that vending machines have impact on eating habits, but to improve heath, it’s a good idea to deal with this problem by changing environment.  However we can’t disregard of providing work for blind because it is necessary for them to live independently. We should find another way to create job which have no negative effect.