ReaganGraeve

Is Marian the new lemonade mouth? Whether students woke up too late and skipped breakfast or found out it’s pizza for lunch, the vending machines are a Marian girl’s best friend. With a colorful display of snack options, the four vending machines in the quad can be a source of breakfast, lunch or even a last minute snack before practice. 

Most girls can say they’ve bought a snack or two from the machines, maybe even a snack for someone else, but senior Maeve Harrington would go as far as to say that she’s “single handedly keeping the vending machines in business.” 

Harrington typically snacks on milk, Butterfingers and strawberry kiwi Snapple, and she has even mastered the perfect way to make popcorn. After school with her friends, she’d put it in for strictly two minutes, claiming it was never burnt. However, her favorite snack is a legend from long ago. 

Harrington goes way back with the vending machines at Marian. “Every day freshman year, I’d run down to the quad and go straight to the vending machines because they had the fruity fruit snacks. They were the best thing in the vending machine,” Harrington said. 

But after her sophomore year, the fruity fruit snacks disappeared, leaving Harrington struggling to adjust to her other options. Although she’s grown to like other snacks, there is still a fruity fruit snack-sized hole left in her heart.

While girls defrosted from the cold winter break, senior Ruthie Barrett “was on a crusade to get lemonade in the machines and it’s been flying out of there,” Mr. Jake Moore, a director of the vending machines, said. It’s Marian’s most recent addition to the vending machines, but not the first. 

Senior Madeline Wear advocated for Fairlife milk in the vending machines last year. Gaining encouragement from her classmates, Harrington too was determined to be an advocate for her beloved snack. She found Moore and courageously made her request. Moore immediately grabbed a yellow sticky note and began writing down all the details to turn Harrington’s dream into a reality. 

“When Mrs. [Melissa] Brusnahan and I started stocking the vending machines last year, it was basically trial and error,” Moore said. Some snacks would sell and some wouldn’t. Up until the 2022-2023 school year, Marian had two rows of healthier snack options in the vending machine but “we didn’t sell enough of it to justify having it in there,” Moore said. 

And thus, the healthy snacks were out due to lack of demand and hot Cheetos were in.

“We couldn’t sell the regular crunchy Cheetos but those flaming hot ones… we can’t keep enough,” Moore said. The snacks in the vending machine are mostly based on what the student body at Marian wants. The vending machines are open for requests and recommendations. Marian is a place where girls can advocate for themselves and voice their opinions. It’s a place where the staff will listen to the students. Whether it’s lemonade, milk, mango Powerade or fruit snacks, Moore and Brusnahan will try to make it happen. 

Clubs can restock the vending machines for a total of six weeks and receive a portion of the profit to put towards their clubs. Not only are the vending machines raising money for students’ extracurricular activities, but they’ve also become a place for students to make memories. Whether it’s before school, study hall, passing period, lunch or after school, the vending machines “bring people together. There’s a sense of community,” Harrington explains. Waiting for her fruit snacks, Harrington has found another item she enjoys. “I really am appreciating the new lemonade. It’s delicious!”