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Vending Made Healthy
Farmer’s Fridge dispensers offer a variety of healthy alternatives to junk food

By Casey Morgan

 
Farmer’s Fridge wants you to eat healthy. Well, healthier. While most vending machines are stocked with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and Little Debbie cakes, this year-old Chicago startup stocks its dispensers daily with fresh, organic salads.

Founder Luke Saunders started the company simply because he could never find nutritious options on the go as a traveling salesman. A natural problem-solver, Saunders set out to make healthy food more accessible. It wasn’t simple.

“I thought, ‘OK, you can set up this fast food place for a million bucks, and there’s plenty of demand for it, so you’ll get your money back,’” he said. “But for a healthy concept, it’s not that easy. I was working with a lot of machinery at the time, and I started thinking about how to automate the process, make it more efficient and give healthy food the edge.”

His solution? Fresh, healthy, accessible salads in user-friendly dispensers. “If it’s more accessible, people will eat healthier,” he said. But Saunders didn’t stop at accessibility. Farmer’s Fridge also focuses on social responsibility: dispensers are made of reclaimed wood (courtesy of Modern Urban Woods of West Chicago) and use under $10 worth of electricity per month; each $7 to $10 salad comes in a recyclable, biodegradable mason jar and every unsold salad is donated to a local food pantry. It’s a feel-good business.

The names of the available dishes are as fresh and vibrant as the produce within. Here are a few fan favorites:

• The Free-Radical Assassin: Mixed greens, goat cheese, mixed berries, sprouts, carrot, flax seed and white balsamic vinaigrette 

• The Grape Escape: Napa cabbage, mixed greens, avocado, organic red grapes, pistachios, dried tart cherries and balsamic vinaigrette 

• The Body Builder: Organic spinach, chickpeas, Parmesan, local corn, local peas, organic quinoa, figs, broccoli, pumpkin seeds and lemon tahini dressing 

Farmer’s Fridge Marketing Manager Bana McCamy eats the salads regularly. “If you want to do your body a favor, this is the ultimate thing to eat,” she said. “It really is a vitamin in a jar.” If you want to raid a Farmer’s Fridge yourself, you can find dispensers at the Garvey Food Court (201 N. Clark Chicago) and Lake Forest Tollway Oasis (13783 W Tollway Oasis Srv Rd, Lake Forest, IL). Eighteen more are scheduled to appear around Chicagoland in the next month.

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Photo courtesy of Farmer’s Fridge

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