The list features 100 privately held emerging companies with compelling business models, strong management teams, notable customers, strategic partners and precious investment capital.

Forbes received applications from more than 3,000 companies hoping to be named ‘America’s Most Promising’ in 2011. To make it to the Top 100 was an honor in itself. Imagine our excitement when we found out we had made 37th on the list!

This recognition means so much to us, and we want to thank everyone who made this possible. A BIG thanks to you, our amazing operators, locations, customers, and fans. It’s great recognition for everyone making a positive impact on the healthy vending movement. From the bottom of our hearts, we say THANK YOU!

Forbes also sent its top contenders for America’s Most Promising Companies to Aileron, a foundation that focuses on the development of entrepreneurs and privately held business as a way to raise the quality of life for many. We were one of five companies invited by Forbes.  While at Aileron, Sean was able to sit down and speak with Clay Mathile, former CEO and owner of The Iams Company and founder of Aileron, and Joni Fedders, president of Aileron.

We’ve learned so much over the years, and continue to learn more every day. If it weren’t for those of you who supported us, believed in our mission, and helped spread our cause across the globe, HUMAN wouldn’t be the “promising company” that it is today. Needless to say, this is something we are STOKED about.

The complete list of Forbes’ America’s Most Promising Companies can be found at www.forbes.com/ampc and in the December issue of Forbes, available at newsstands December 1st.

If you are interested in our healthy vending program, get in touch with your Healthy Vending expert, Bill Wotochek, to see if there is still availability in your area.  With major recognition from Forbes many areas will be filling up fast!

Give Bill a call at (720) 987-8442 or email him at bill@healthyvending.com

Best in health,

Sean and Andy

Founders, HUMAN Healthy Vending

Japan, the world’s leader in vending technology, has launched new touch screen vending machines in railway stations in Tokyo.  These high-tech machines have tripled sales and the company running them is hoping to expand to 500 machines as soon as possible.

“A 47-inch touchscreen panel dominates the front of this beast, which shows two tall eyes when in sleep mode and switches to the storefront mode, which displays available drinks (and hides ones that are sold out, so that no ugly red “Sold out” buttons appear).” Check out the full article here: http://letsmakeitalife.blogspot.com/2011/01/touch-screen-vending-machines.html

The Child Nutrition Bill and Our Schools

Now that Congress has passed the child nutrition bill and President Obama signed it in to law, schools across the country will start to determine how the new legislation impacts their own meal and vending programs.

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act allows the Secretary of Agriculture to establish nutrition standards for foods sold in schools throughout the day, including items in vending machines.

As far as details go, the bill is a good start – but it is not enough to make groundbreaking changes in student nutrition.  For low-income students, the bill provides only 6 cents more per meal, and almost half of the $4.5 billion cost during the next decade is coming from cuts in the food-stamp program.

While it does not amount to a complete overhaul of the school lunch program, the child nutrition bill does include many significant improvements for student nutrition.  It increases the availability of school lunches by expanding the pool of low-income children eligible for the both free and reduced-price meals, while also stopping the federal government from subsidizing junk food and sugary drinks, whether they are sold in vending machines of from behind the counter.

The Importance of the Bill

The bill was passed just as the Journal of Adolescent Health released a report examining the impact of vending machine foods on 5,930 students at 152 schools. More than 80% of the schools surveyed had vending machines selling foods with minimal nutritional value, including chips, sodas and sweets.

In addition to these funding changes, the nutritional guidelines have been rewritten to include more fruits and vegetables, and less fat, salt, and starch.

School Grants

In response to the passing of the child nutrition bill, traditional vending machines in schools across the country are being replaced by healthy vending machines by HUMAN.  Progressive schools are replacing their machines before they are asked to comply to make sure they can take advantage of $10,000 in school grants provided by SPARK for replacing their junk food machines with with healthy vending machines.

Outraged Vendors Don’t Have a Clue

We Have Got Nothing To Hide!

A new law signed into effect back in March will require all vending machines to display nutritional information about each product so consumers can make more informed decisions. Sounds reasonable, right? Don’t you want to know what’s in the food you’re buying BEFORE you buy it? However, some vendors think this law is unreasonable. Apparently, consumers don’t need to have this information because it will take too much of the vendors’ time. What do you think?

What Is This Law All About?

The new regulation applies to both restaurants and vending machines. The measure states that “chain restaurants and similar retail food establishments (SRFE) with 20 or more locations doing business under the same name and offering for sale substantially the same menu items…as well as operators of 20 or more vending machines…to disclose certain nutrition information for certain food items offered for sale so that consumers can make more informed choices about the food they purchase.” This basically means that vending machine customers need to have access to the nutritional information for any and every item in the vending machine. Just as you check labels at the supermarket before you make a purchase, customers will now be able to compare labels of vending machine items to help them make better decisions.

Stop Complaining AND Comply!

Traditional Vendors Are Outraged

Owners and operators of old-fashioned machines are incensed because the FDA estimates that adding this type of information will take 14 million hours each year. Vendors apparently don’t have the time to keep this information up to date and don’t want to spend the extra money it may take to hire personnel to adhere to the new regulation. The complaint is that since they switch out items regularly, new labels would need to be added each time. Depending on how you go about this, it could take some extra time, yes. But there are ways to handle this new law without breaking the budget. The vending machine industry even questions the need for the new requirement in the first place. Senior vice president of government affairs for the National Automatic Merchandising Association, Ned Monroe, said, “Considering that most products purchased out of a vending machine are the same one that are well known and available in other retail channels everywhere, and not prepared menu items where consumers may be unaware of what the nutritional content is, we question whether this measure is necessary at all.” He also said this measure would “kill jobs” and the time needed to comply with it is “absurd.”

Technology Easily Handles The Requirement

Human Healthy Vending is elated about this new requirement for all vending machines. Why? Because we have already been doing this for years! Automated retail allows technology to take center stage, giving customers nutritional information and much more. The LCD screen(s) included with each machine gives customers all the information they need. The information on these screens is completely customizable and can be set up to show nutritional information in a number of ways. One of our machines allows the user to select a product using touch screen technology. Once they select that product, our machine can either show that product’s nutritional information on that same touch screen, or we can display the information on another LCD screen above that touch screen at eye level. The secret to this whole process is touch screen vending. Human makes it easy to display this information to customers. We can easily conform to this new mandate while others are just complaining!

Informed Consumers Are Better Consumers

I think we can all agree that an informed consumer is a smarter consumer. And with obesity rates as high as they are, I don’t see how vendors can argue against making consumers, their customers, more informed. Perhaps if consumers saw the labels of the junk food in the vending machines, they wouldn’t make purchases from those machines in the first place. Is that what vendors are really afraid of? Healthy vending machines have nothing to hide! We put nutritional information front and center for all to see. We want our customers to make informed decisions. We also want our customers to be healthy, at any cost.

A Japanese reporter in Nanjing shows us a vending machine that sells live Shanghai Hairy Crabs:

The inside of the machine is kept at 5 degrees Celsius, a temperature cold enough to make the crabs go into a state of hibernation. A sign states that all the crabs in the machine are fresh: if the crab is dead-on-arrival, they promise to give you three free crabs.

Genius! It gets people to pick of the almost dead ones first, thinking they may hit a triple. I can see it now… “Hey that one looks dead. Go for it!”

The Chinese man who came up with the idea for the vending machine enthusiastically declares that he is ready to consider offers if there is demand for his product in Japan.

The second half of the video focuses on Japanese vending machines. It shows us the banana vending machine inside Shibuya station, as well as a bar that is equipped with sake vending machines.

The real question is, would you eat a crab from a vending machine? Check out the video and then comment below.

(note: You may be wondering why the video is filmed in China but they are speaking Japanese, the reporter is Japanese and is doing a story on a Chinese vending machine.)

Thanks for the link Carolyn!

In general, healthier foods still cost a little more, but keep in mind that you’re paying for a higher quality product with REAL ingredients and nutritional substance. As more and more people are hopping aboard the healthy movement, we are starting to see a positive transition in both company and consumer priorities. Many companies are working to deliver healthier products to consumers and, in turn, we are willing to spend more on foods that we know are better for us.  That being said, affordability is becoming a non-issue and our accessibility to healthy food options is growing. Hooray!

Just look around at the grocery store — Take a stroll down the snack aisle. There are so many more delicious and healthy products now and, best of all, it won’t break the bank for us to bring them home. A lot of companies have even improved their existing products to have better ingredients, without affecting the price.

Still, there is way too much junk food out there and many of us are in the habit of turning to these products out of impulse and familiarity. We need to work on that. There are so many healthy alternatives out there to satisfy every craving, flavor, and texture that your tummy could desire. You just have to make the right choices, break your old habits, and commit to snacking smarter. It will benefit everyone, especially yourself.

Here’s a quick scenario:

You’ve got a buck in your hand, and a nagging hunger pang. You walk over to the nearest food source, a typical traditional vending machine. Hmm, what to choose? Well, there are greasy potato chips, fried corn chips with additives, snack crackers with chemical preservatives, candy bars full of high fructose corn syrup and refined sugars, fruit snacks with artificial flavors and dyes… you get the idea. Is this really what you want to spend your hard-earned money on? It may only be $0.75, but it’s still a poor investment. Don’t give this vending machine your money! Your health will be paying a lot more down the road if you choose to consistently eat from here.

Do this instead:

Take your money to 100% healthy vending machines (these guys are popping up everywhere!). Their products might be priced a little higher, but you’ll get premium, equally tasty (if not tastier) natural snack options like baked pita chips, gourmet rice puffs, fruit & granola bars, etc. that you can feel good about eating. H.U.M.A.N. Healthy Vending is even launching a $1 machine, stocked completely with 100% healthy items that will only run you a buck! Now that’s making your dollar count.

Times, they are a changing! Upgrade your eating habits, and get it out of your head that “healthy” is synonymous with “expensive.” You don’t have to settle for junk food anymore, and you don’t have to spend a lot to get a lot. Healthy eating is not a privilege, it is your right!

Well I’m here to wipe the silly look of confusion off of everyone’s face, because healthy vending machines DO exist.  But I can definitely see why the phrase would seem contradictory, after all: vending machines are traditionally unhealthy in more ways than one…

Let’s step back in time to the first vending machines that dispensed food products: In 1888 the Thomas Adams Gum Company introduced machines that dispensed gum balls for coins on New York City subway platforms.  A revolutionary concept: create miniature automatic retailers that required no supervision and that conveniently placed products that people wanted where they happen to be walking by! Brilliant!

The vending machine evolved through the late 1800s and early 1900s to offer everything from cigars to stamps.  Did you know that there was even a completely coin operated restaurant called Horn and Hadart in Philadelphia from 1902 to 1962??? Customers would come in and place coins in slots below windows that displayed cold food, then they’d turn a chrome knob and the food would be revealed through technological magic (ok, not that magic, a slot opened up).

By the 1920s vending machines evolved into just soda and candy dispensers.  This is where I think the industry flat-lined in terms of its product offering. Sure, the machines themselves advanced along with the breakthroughs in related technology (lights, compressors, etc.), but the food and drink type basically stayed the same….why?

I think its because vending machine operators bought into a model that worked. And like my pappy used to say “if it ain’t broke, then get a beer from the fridge and hide in the garage from your mother so that she thinks you’re busy fixing it when you’re actually trying to get out of helping make dinner!”  Or something like that. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that people were provided with what they thought they wanted when they’re on the go and don’t have time to sit down and eat: sugary foods that “give them energy”.

So since 1920 the vending machine industry has been about as innovative as my brother, who just the other day decided to start wearing pants in public. Doesn’t that baffle you? Not about my brother’s daily indecent exposure, but that for 90 years vending machines have almost exclusively offered candy, soda, and cigarettes? Through all the health revolutions and nutrition awareness campaigns….these big brown boxes sat there displaying “tasty” crap for all the world to eat?

Well, thankfully its 2010 and there are healthy vending machines that dispense ONLY 100% healthy food and beverages.  No, they don’t dispense healthy cigarettes. There’s no such thing.

Do you know any funny oxymorons? I’d love to hear about them!

Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful. -- Warren Buffett

I JUST DROPPED A WARREN BUFFETT QUOTE ON  YOU.  That means things are about to get heavy.  If you are looking into starting up your own business or buying into a franchise model, the choices are endless.  The demands for initial investment vary from a few thousand dollars to millions.  The time, expertise, and knowledge capital requirements vary equally as much.  An often overlooked option is a vending machine business.

PROS: Vending operators who are successful often revel in how sweet of a set-up this business is for a variety of reasons:

1. Low Cost of Labor: The machines do all the work.  No clerk is required to execute each transaction. Filling the machines and handling maintenance are the main human-required components once the machine is placed.  This is a business you can do in your spare time which keeping the stable income of your day job.
2. Customer Accessibility: Your business is open for as long as people have access to the machine. In many locations, such as hospitals, this can be 24 hours a day.
3. Mobility: Location starts to get low traffic? Sales are suffering? Pop that baby on a dolly and wheel it on across the street to a better one!
4. Relatively low initial investment: Compared to other franchises, these machines are a minimal investment.  $10k for a premium high-tech vending machine, and a little as $2k for a plain ugly brown box traditional vending machine.

CONS: If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. I’m sure this is no surprise to you. Just like any business, there are risks involved:

1. Location, location, location. Location is obviously important in ANY business.  With vending machines it is THE most important factor (assuming your machines work and have product in them).  Just buying a machine and trying to find a location on your own is difficult.  Turnkey-model vending businesses exist that will help you acquire premium locations, though, but you must be sure to use an established and reputable one.
2. The traditional vending industry is in a decline. The industry that everyone knows best, traditional junk food and soda vending, has become stagnant.  Sales have flat-lined for soda, candy, and chips.  However: Certain niches within the vending industry are exploding.  Healthy vending is poised to become a long lasting trend with legislation emerging from the Obama administration demanding healthier food and snack options in schools.  Wellness programs at office buildings and hospitals are also becoming increasingly interested in provided premium amenities for their employees and customers rather than the typical junk.
3. You could be contributing to the declining health of Americans. If you are interested in being as socially responsible as you are financially successful, then you need to consider the real effects that investing in a traditional vending machine company will have.  Over 33% of Americans are now obese, and obesity costs our country $150 billion per year in health care costs. Childhood obesity is on the rise at an alarming pace as well.  You should consider how your business will fit in to this mess. Will it make the problem worse by providing junk food and soda to people? Or will it provide healthier choices for people?

So do your homework.  Warren Buffett would agree, and I’ll verify this with him if he ever returns my phone calls.  The Oracle of Omaha says DON’T BE SCARED of taking a risk…but do your homework first.

After holding my breath since June 10th, today I am proud to say that a MONUMENTAL bill has passed in the House of Representatives.  H.R. 5504 “Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act” was passed yesterday, and parents across the country are saying: “It’s about TIME.” This is a huge milestone in the promotion of healthy eating in the nation’s schools, as part of the war on childhood obesity (not-so-fun-fact: one out of five children are obese!  Next step is getting it approved in the Senate…

If this is news to you, then let me give you an overview of how fantastically awesome the bill is:

Summary: Amends the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to revise the school lunch and breakfast programs, the summer food service program, the child and adult care food program (CACFP), and the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children (WIC program). Reauthorizes appropriations for such programs through FY2015. Includes among such revisions:
(1) encouraging the direct certification of children who receive other public assistance as eligible for free meals under the school lunch and breakfast programs;
(2) establishing new mechanisms by which schools or local educational agencies (LEAs) with very high proportions of low-income children can receive federal reimbursement for free or reduced price meals under such programs without collecting individual paper applications from households;
(3) establishing a program awarding competitive grants to states and, through them, competitive subgrants to LEAs to establish or expand the school breakfast program at low-income schools;
(4) expanding the access of low-income rural areas to the summer food service program;
(5) requiring updates to meal patterns and nutrition standards for the school lunch and breakfast programs based on recommendations made by the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS);
(6) requiring the establishment of science-based nutrition standards for all foods sold in schools outside the school lunch and breakfast programs;
(7) requiring LEAs participating in the school lunch and breakfast programs to establish local school wellness policies for their schools that include goals for nutrition promotion and education, physical activity and education, and other school-based activities that promote student wellness;
(8) requiring reimbursable meals and snacks provided under the CACFP to meet the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans and certain authoritative scientific recommendations;
(9) encouraging WIC program participants to breastfeed; and
(10) requiring WIC electronic benefit transfer (EBT) systems to be implemented nationwide by October 1, 2020.

Right here we have a trifecta of health, affordability, and efficiency to combat the current trifecta: few healthy options, low-income families, and inefficient bureaucracy. Sponsored by Rep. George Miller (D-CA), this bill is accordance with Michelle Obama’s mission of ending childhood obesity.

So what comes next? Implementation! Schools now have their work cut out for them.  It starts with baby steps: setting goals in regards to nutrition and physical activity programs, replacing junk food vending machines with healthier options, and competing for grants with other schools.  Revamping their school lunch program will be no easy task, but the clock is ticking as waistlines steadily expand.

Vending machines are generally overlooked as something detrimental to a workplace,  school, or gym.  After all, the store is too far away and these people need to snack! Heck, we’ll just plug it in, sign the contract, and everyone will be happy! This is the kind of short-sighted thinking that can have negative long term effects.

Let’s take a look at some of the negative impacts the traditional junk food vending machines have:

• Energy consumption: A refrigerated vending machine can consume between 2,500 and 4,000 kilowatt-hours  per year.  To give you some perspective, in 2008 the average home consumed around 11,000 kilowatt-hours.  So if those 3-4 vending machines at work could power your home for a year! The good news: new eco-friendly vending machines now use 50% less electricity!
• Product mix: traditional vending machines contain nothing but junk food.  Its no news flash to anyone that the U.S. and the world as a whole is struggling with the rise of obesity and its associated negative health impact.  28 out of 50 states have reported an increase in the percentage of obese people, and childhood obesity is one of the greatest threats to the next generation. The good news: healthy vending machines are steadily being placed in schools, gyms, and office buildings worldwide!
• Education: traditional vending machines give no indication as to the nutritional content of their foods.  You can’t bust the glass and read the label! Consumers then rely on what tastes good, which to the average person is unfortunately some type of sugary or salty snack with little to no nutritional value.  The good news: New, high-tech vending machines with large LCD displays and on-board personal computers power an interactive snack buying experience for the consumer.  Nutritional content is now at the touch of a button!

Maybe that’s what the Cubs need: healthy vending machines in their training facility! It would explain a lot…Don’t hate on me, Chicago, I’m just trying to help.