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While vending machine culture here is mostly limited to junk food like chips, soda, and disappointing burritos, a Chicago-based salad vending machine company is planning on changing that—by opening up healthy kiosks in Los Angeles.
Farmer's Fridge's founder, 28-year-old Luke Sanders, will be bringing his on-the-go, salad-filled, plastic mason jars sometime next year to Los Angeles, according to the L.A. Times. His salads will range from $5 to $8 and will have an assortment of high-end ingredients.
Some of his pretty tasty-sounding combinations in his wood-covered vending machines include The Mediterranean, which is made of mixed greens, artichoke hearts, cannellini beans, organic cucumber, tomato, Kalamata olives, Parmesan, pine nuts, oregano and red wine vinaigrette. There's also The Cheater with romaine lettuce, turkey bacon, white cheddar, hard-boiled egg, sunflower seeds, corn, carrot, organic cucumber, grape tomatoes and honey mustard dressing.
Farmer's Fridge vending machine in Lake Forest, Illinois (Photo via Facebook)
Alongside of those items, Farmer's Fridge also offers snacks like Greek yogurt and berries, and cauliflower fried rice, as well as proteins like chicken and fish on the side.
And the salads look like they're getting good reviews. Even one of the vending machines in Chicago has scored a five-star rating on Yelp.
Sanders launched Farmer's Fridge a year ago in Chicago, and the vending machines have since popped up at office buildings, food courts, and convenience stores, The Atlantic reported.
He first came up with the idea when he was traveling for work at a former job at a manufacturing company and noticed fast food spots had little healthy options.
"My realization was that I could make fresh food and put it in a vending machine without adding any preservatives or other junk and it would taste good," Sanders told the Huffington Post in an interview in February. "We want everything to be in the running for 'the best salad I ever had' or 'the best blank I ever had.' If it's not that good, we're not going to put it in there."
