New vending machine ready for action at park
By the time you read this, the machine should be open for business.
The Friends of the City Park in Soda Springs completed a project to install shade structures at the playground area earlier in the year. Or rather, they nearly completed the project. There was a bit more money raised than was needed for the shade structures themselves, though not enough for an entirely new project, so the group decided to add to the playground in a meaningful and additive way with the installation of a vending machine.
Friends president Laura Lind said, “The roof is on and the machine is fully stocked. We do have some non-food items coming from Amazon that we will place in the machine when they arrive so in the meantime, I filled every free space with food items.”
The nature of the snacks, in case there is any concern, was described by Friend member Alana Burns as “both traditional snack and drink options along with healthy options (allergy free granola bars, protein snacks, etc.).”
The ultimate plan is to also stock the machine with “small first aid kits, sunscreen, wet wipes, and antibacterial wipes” in addition to the snacks and drinks that have already been placed in the machine.
This will give parents who may have forgotten to bring some of the essentials for a day at the park access to much needed items without having to pack everything back up and head to the store. It will also hopefully prevent instances of kids needing to make their way across the busy highway to purchase food or water on the other side.
The machine hit an unexpected snag in its first day of operation, through a combination of being overly popular among the younger set. As Lind explained, “The machine only takes paper bills, quarters, dimes, and nickels. No pennies! We just had to go over and clean out all of the coins because we had people putting the coins in too fast and using pennies and it caused a jam so the machine stopped working!”
