The various items you can dispense from Utah vending machines: Chickens, creative fiction, CBD, and more.

• Author: Mumford, Jacqueline

IN 1884, WILLIAM HENRY FRUEN filed a patent on his "Automatic Liquid-Drawing Device" in the US. Nearly a century and a half later, the general public knows the invention by a different name--vending machines.

While you may still associate them with the waters and sodas of old, vending machines have seen a significant uptick in commerce and non-commerce use alike in the century and a half since their creation. Now, automatic dispensers across the state of Utah are flipping the narrative for the distribution method.

According to The Washington Post, there are five million vending machines In the US.

At least 10 of these vending machines dispense toothpaste, menstrual kits, actual beehives, and more. Dubbed "Giving Machines," these specialized vending machines were rolled out as part of the Light the World initiative by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2016.

"The campaign is an effort to encourage acts of service," says Karl Cheney, a mass media specialist for the missionary department of the Church. "In our brainstorming sessions, someone said offhand, 'Wouldn't it be easy to 'vend' service?' From there, the idea transformed into the Giving Machines, where anyone can perform an instant act of service."

After procuring three 30-year-old vending machines from a local vendor in Salt Lake City, the team was tasked with filling them. The Giving Machine team turned to global and local charities to better understand needed resources-- in the typical machine, four rows host items that members in the community need. In Hawaii, for example, users can choose a card that sends a child to summer camp or pays someone's utility bills. The remaining two rows supply goods that can be shipped worldwide.

Getting buy-in wasn't so easy in the beginning, though.

"You'd be surprised by how many local charities we asked to participate said no," says Mike Grass, public relations director for Boncom. "I don't think they understood the logistics of putting a charity in a vending machine, and lots of people were put off by the idea. It just seemed weird. It was different."

Even when the team got local Utah charities to sign on, they struggled to find a place to put the makeshift vending machines.

"It was just challenge after challenge," Grass says.

Eventually, a spot outside the Joseph Smith Memorial Building opened up, and the vending machines found a home. In the first year, the Giving Machines saw more traffic than anyone expected.

"When we started this back In 2017, It was very much a publicity stunt," Grass says. "It wasn't something that we thought would continue past year one. We expected a few photo-ops, a press release about 'vending service' or something--that's really it. But when I turned around after we plugged the first machines in, there were already 20 people in line."

The motors...