Vending

Sacramento youth center installs book vending machine

Photo: Adobe Stock

May 15, 2024

The Rancho Cordova Youth Center in Sacramento, California, has installed a book vending machine that dispenses brand-new books to visitors.

Children who visit the youth center earn tokens to use the book vending machine and can keep the book they receive, according to a Sacramento News & Review report. The Rancho Cordova Youth Center partnered with the Kiwanis Club of Rancho Cordova to receive grant funds to complete the project.

The Kiwanis Club secured a Community Enhancement and Investment Fund grant of $9,000 from the City of Rancho Cordova for the vending machine and related supplies.

Lisa Burkholder, member of the Kiwanis Club, said the vending machines are used as a reward system for positive behavior and that students can earn as many tokens as they can.

"The students get to go and put the token in the vending machine and choose like you would buy a candy…They get to choose the book that they want out of the vending machine," Burkholder told the news outlet. "The idea is to create home libraries for children, so we want these books to go home. That's why the children get to choose the books they want."