Imagine this: you have 10 minutes before your next class, and you are starving. The only problem is, you don’t have any food in your bag and your class is nowhere near the new Café in Iowa Hall. Your only option is to tough it out for the next one-to-two hours until you can make it to a food source.
Here’s another scenario for you: in a mad dash to get out of the house this morning, your trusty water bottle was abandoned on the kitchen counter, and now you have a killer headache from dehydration, and it feels like it is going to be forever until you can get home and get a drink. Sure, there are water fountains around, but that is not going to be enough to tide you over. There has to be a better way, right?
Well, there is. If Kirkwood were to install just one vending machine in each of the buildings on campus, the snacks and beverages that you so badly crave would be just steps away.
I am a firm believer that all students here on campus should have adequate access to snacks.
There are some serious benefits to this too. In fact, a study from the National Library of Medicine shows that a snack can actually boost cognitive function. It was found that the test group that allowed participants to have a snack before answering mathematical questions actually scored higher than when they answered the questions before having a snack.
A Harvard School of Public Health article dives into the “science of snacking.” They explain that the reason a light snack could boost your cognitive ability is that it actually just boosts your blood glucose levels. Lowered blood glucose levels can lead to drowsiness, feelings of anxiety, irritability, and more.
So, it seems that having the ability to grab a quick and healthy vending machine snack, like a bottle of water or a granola bar, can actually have a pretty positive effect on your day.
Jo Brahms, Digital Arts major
Categories: Letters to the editor, Opinion
