{"id":11823,"date":"2016-03-16T06:25:14","date_gmt":"2016-03-16T13:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=11823"},"modified":"2016-03-24T13:56:22","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T20:56:22","slug":"lack-of-healthy-options-in-camosun-vending-machines-questioned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2016\/03\/16\/lack-of-healthy-options-in-camosun-vending-machines-questioned\/","title":{"rendered":"Lack of healthy options in Camosun vending machines questioned"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scanning the vending machines at Camosun College, one is face to face with a lot of junk food and not a lot of healthy options. Potato chips and chocolate bars are there, but there\u2019s not much in the way of more nutritious food.<\/p>\n

This is what has Camosun first-year Early Learning and Care student Charly-Ann Pare concerned. She was hungry during a five-minute break between classes one day; she\u2019s trying to eat healthy, and wandered over to a vending machine to get a snack.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hadn\u2019t eaten anything, so I went to the vending machine and realized all there was was chocolate bars and chips,\u201d says Pare. \u201cThe only somewhat healthy item was a cinnamon roll granola bar, which is full of sugar. Do they care about the students, or do they only care about the profits?\u201d<\/p>\n

But Camosun tried adding healthy options to vending machines on campus in the past, and didn\u2019t have much luck, according to Camosun vice president of student experience Joan Yates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of history, we did do this a few years back, and a number of students got back to us and they kind of liked the unhealthy options, so we went back,\u201d says Yates. \u201cThe vending machines aren\u2019t run by the college itself, but if students have an interest in healthier options, we would certainly look into that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A look inside one of Camosun\u2019s vending machines (photo by Jill Westby\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Students have healthier options at both campuses in the cafeterias and bookstores, but evening classes and small breaks can jeopardize students\u2019 chances to make a stop to grab something healthy, a barrier that the college does recognize.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggie, of course, is that not all those services are available late at night or on weekends, when students might be here and, indeed, the vending machines are the only option,\u201d says Yates.<\/p>\n

Pare says that while the college has healthier options available on campus, it would be nice for the vending machines to have some of those healthier options as well, adding that students should have access to food that will benefit their learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re stressed out during midterms, you want something healthy to give your brain energy,\u201d says Pare. \u201cThat will help you in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pare says that schools should be leading institutions in nutrition, saying that there are many students who are trying to eat healthier, to say nothing of the students who are on various diets or are restricted in what they can eat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that one student doesn\u2019t have anything to eat and is trying to lose weight,\u201d says Pare, \u201cwhy doesn\u2019t the nutrition start in the schools?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not uncommon for institutions such as schools, as well as hospitals and various businesses, to have healthier options in their vending machines nowadays. One popular rule of thumb is known as \u201cthe 80\/20 rule,\u201d which refers to when a vending machine is stocked with 80 percent healthy food and 20 percent non-healthy food.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recently went to an elementary school and was surprised when most of the food [in their vending machines] was healthy,\u201d says Pare. \u201cIf public schools and rec centres are making the change, why isn\u2019t Camosun? I think it would be nice for students to have the same opportunities as everywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

First-year Digital Production, Writing and Design student Jacob Slipp says that while he thinks junk food is \u201cnice,\u201d he wants variety.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want vending machines to be exclusive to fruit or exclusive to Mars bars,\u201d says Slipp. \u201cI want variety.\u201d<\/p>\n

First-year Arts and Science student Shayan Bueno says that it would be nice to have more healthier options in Camosun\u2019s vending machines.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents would eat healthier instead of binging on junk food,\u201d says Bueno, adding that the \u201cvending machine snacks are very overpriced for the small amounts you get.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the future, Camosun\u2019s Yates says that the college is definitely open to hearing what people want to see in the vending machines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are sure willing to have conversations,\u201d says Yates. \u201cWe are happy to look at what those may need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scanning the vending machines at Camosun College, one is face to face with a lot of junk food and not a lot of healthy options. Potato chips and chocolate bars are there, but there\u2019s not much in the way of more nutritious food. This is what has Camosun first-year Early Learning and Care student Charly-Ann […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-march-16-2016"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11823"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11835,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11823\/revisions\/11835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}