Blind Vendors White Paper Supports Economics Of Healthy Vending

Dan Sippl

RSVA represents Randolph-Sheppard's licensed blind managers and is the largest affiliate of the American Council of the Blind. Sagebrush will be held from Feb. 9 to 13 in Las Vegas.

"There has been a lot of noise among blind vendors denouncing healthy vending for several years," said RSVA president Dan Sippl. "Most of the noisemakers cannot substantiate their positions against healthy vending with large samplings of verifiable or empirical data. This raises a concern because the perception of many blind vendors is that the noise is gospel."

Pinky Harris, a blind vendor and New Orleans foodservice industry veteran, researched and authored RSVA's white paper. "Our findings demonstrate a huge disparity between public statements made by those blind vendors opposing healthy vending and what the industry's empirical data supports," Harris stated.

She said the white paper is not a call for healthy vending mandates, but rather a benchmark for blind vendors to use in evaluating whether the healthy vending alternative makes economic sense in their businesses.

"Making critical business decisions based on misleading information can be catastrophic to any vending operator's cashflow," Harris emphasized. "Reasoned decision-making that considers the best data available is the hallmark of successful entrepreneurs."

The formal announcement of the white paper will be accompanied by releases to key members of Congress, chairpersons of state legislative health committees, and senior decision-makers within the federal and state executive branches.

It will be available to the public at the RSVA website, randolph-sheppard.org.

Earlier this month, Los Angeles-based healthy vending promoter HUMAN said it had entered into an agreement with RSVA to provide government and private sector facilities with healthy vending programs. | SEE STORY