We have a new revolutionary addition to the school. Make way for “The Media Mogul” vending machine, a brand new machine created by the fellow humans at the h.u.m.a.n healthy vending company. It features a 23″ HD video screen, a credit card reader, a self-diagnosing system and infrared sensors that prevent the machine from snagging the products, thus preventing the machine from eating money and not giving it back.

“The machine is a little intimidating, it’s super high tech, talks to you, and it’s basically like having a miniature whole foods in a vending machine,” said junior Isabel Dufford, “it’s healthier, technically, in that it has better food. I’m super pumped for the new vending machine, because I have a peer tutor second block and I can go get breakfast from it if I need to, and now it’s a better quality breakfast.”

It seems this vending machine has a lot of people excited, so if you haven’t checked out the new installation, you might want to.

Assistant Principal Jesse Hull heads the health and wellness committee and was one of the main decision makers. Here’s what he had to say on the new investment:

Why did the school buy a new vending machine instead of something else?

Mr. Hull: So, there are a couple of reasons, the first being that the old contract on the other vending machine, which was ten years old, expired in February. Secondly, there are a bunch of laws that surround what kind of food you can have in a school, health-wise, and the food that was in the old vending machine didn’t follow the new laws that came out in the state of Colorado. The third reason is that we have a school health and wellness committee that’s funded by a big grant that we get through Partners for Healthy Choices, which Ms. Wood and Ms. Geek are running.

I, myself, and Ms. Kelly are the head of the committee, and each year we have to write new wellness goals for the school. One of the goals that we came up with was to provide students with healthier snacks during the school day, which was another reason to buy the new vending machine.

Being the head of the Health and Wellness committee, did that affect your decision process in buying this new machine?

Mr. Hull: Well, we didn’t buy the machine, we leased it from a different company that was recommended to us because it was in line with the new Colorado law. Then, what happens is,the profits are split between the company and the school district and the profits… go to the food service.

Do you think it’s going to be a beneficial investment overall?

Mr. Hull: Yeah, I think it’s great! The last couple of days it seems like there has been a line out there during lunch because students are excited that there is healthier food in there, but yeah,I think it’s great. I was excited, even my little guy wanted to eat out of the junk food machine everyday, but the other day he came back with, I forget what it was but it was something really healthy instead of junk food which was great. So yeah, I think it’s a great investment because at Manitou, not only do we want our students to learn, but we also want it to be a healthy environment for everyone.

By Chase Howard