Fake Snack Vending Machines Appearing in Utah Schools

Salt Lake City — They are fakes, phony, and imitations. And they’re being used to help educate Utah’s children to make good choices about food.

For the past three years, full-size modified snack vending machines have been making appearances in dozens of Utah schools, businesses and other public venues. The machines look real, but each machine has fake products and won’t take your money or actually give you any snacks. But push the machine’s buttons and it will give you humorous advice about the snack you’ve selected, and perhaps suggest a healthier alternative.

The fake vending machines are part of the LiVe Well public service program sponsored by Intermountain Healthcare. LiVe Well encourages people to eat healthy and be active.

Each machine contains a full selection of phony or look-alike products such as candy bars, chips, cookies, and desserts. It’s intended to help kids understand the importance of making healthy food choices, all in a fun and entertaining way.

Some of the snarky advice the snack machines offer includes:

• It may taste good to your mouth, but your digestive system’s gonna make you pay for it later.
• How about you run to the grocery store and pick up some fresh fruit or somethin’? You could use a healthy snack and the run wouldn’t hurt either.
• Onion Rings: Never mind what these do to your body, think of what they do to your breath.
• Potatoes come from Idaho; potato chips come from the deep fat fryer.

Visit intermountainlivewell.org and click “Eat Well” to see a video of the machine in action​.

In addition to the phony snack machine, the innovative LiVe Well public service campaign includes advertising, school assembly presentations, educational materials for health providers, and a family-friendly website with many engaging features such as interactive games, healthy recipes, and links to community resources.​​