May 26, 2005
Vending machines get milk, card readers
Got milk?
These days, There are vending machines on campus to make sure you always do. Housing and Food Services recently installed four milk machines — in Kane, the Health Sciences T Wing, Terry-Lander, and McMahon.
“We wanted to address the needs of customers looking for healthier options,” said Micheal Meyering, vending manager. “Milk just seemed like a natural.”
The milk is from Wilcox Farms, which not only boasts steroid-free milk, but also offers five different flavors. So far, Meyering says, strawberry is the favorite.
And lest you think that a campus with a virtually all-adult population would not be interested in milk, think again. Meyering says that the machines sold out during the first couple of days after they were installed, leading him to ask the vendors for more frequent delivery.
“The students in the residence halls have 24-hour access to the machines, and we see them buying three or four containers of milk at 1 in the morning,” Meyering said.
He hopes to add three more milk machines — in the HUB, Haggett and By George — in the near future.
HFS has also made it easier to buy things from the vending machines by enabling customers to pay with a Husky Card — that’s the debit account available to all students, faculty and staff that is accepted all over campus (see http://hfs.washington.edu/husky_card/).
Meyering said the vendors have agreed to finance and install the card readers into the machines and that wireless technology has made it easier to set them up. There are currently 61 card readers in place in campus vending machines. Buildings that have one or more card reading vending machines are: Health Sciences T-wing, By George, the Rotunda, Condon, Balmer, Terry-Lander, McMahon, Haggett, McCarty, the HUB, Physics/Astronomy, Mary Gates, William Gates and Kane.
Meyering said he hopes to have 40 more card-reading machines in place by the middle of July.
For questions about vending machines, call the campus vending customer service line at 206-685-8221 or e-mail vending@hfs.washington.edu.
