Vending machines once occupied the empty halls of Freedom, snacks were a touch of a button away. In student’s
opinion, was their removal beneficial?

Let’s be honest, with the long lunch lines, and the early lunch schedule, students often walk the halls on an empty
stomach. In class instead of thinking about the lesson they’re being taught, they think about how much they
would love a snack. The crunch and flavor packed into one little chip bag, it can be so tempting to leave class and
pick up a bag of chips. Before the machines were taken away, they could leave class and grab the snack of their
choice to satisfy that craving. As the new school year begins, the vending machines that sat in the halls in past
years were nowhere to be found. Why are the vending machines no longer there?

Mr. Dylan Jones gave an inside look at the trouble vending machines were causing in his classes.

“It was always a big distraction when students would leave class during 6th and 7th period to get something to
snack on,” Jones said.

“It was a daily occurrence last year and became highly disruptive because students would get angry if he ever
said no.”

“It’s understandable since we had lunch almost five hours earlier in the day,” Jones said. “It has made things much simpler with the removal of the machines.”

Vending machines seemed to be a way to get out of class, a way to skip that boring lesson, and an even bigger
distraction. Shockingly, teachers weren’t the only people who felt that vending machines disrupted their classrooms
and learning environment.

“Kids would disrupt class by coming in late with snacks,” Amanda Decker (12) said. “This made it hard to focus in class.”

The noises of chip bags, the opening and closing of doors, and the constant hand raising to ask for a snack keeps
students unfocused and takes away valuable learning time, not to mention the snack possibilities weren’t that
great either.

“They didn’t have a lot of options to begin with, along with no variety in food choices,” Izzy Selvaggi (9) said.

Imagine leaving class for a snack and seeing the candy bar you wanted all gone. Those minutes wasted on the
repetitive snacks in the machine could have been used to further a student’s education.

Whether it’s lack of snack options, skipping class, or disrupting a lesson, there was only one choice left, to take the
vending machines away. While the vending machines will be missed, with the new market open in the Freedom
courtyard, snacking is quick, disruption free, and there are a variety of popular snacks to pick from.

“The vending machines wouldn’t take certain bills,” Jennifer Hernandez (11) said. “The buttons didn’t work, and the food would get stuck.”