Vending machines sell way more than just candy these days. There are vending machines that sell electronics and make-up and even live crabs (that one’s in China). But the new machine installed at Johns Hopkins Hospital is certainly one-of-a-kind.
The vending machine sells many things a nursing mother might need, including breast pads, nipple cream, and nursing pump accessories. According to the Baltimore Sun, the idea for the machine originated with Hopkins employee Meg Stoltzfus, who got to thinking about how women who use breast milk pumps could find themselves out of luck if they happened to be stuck in the Hopkins hospital after the hospital gift shops were closed for the night. There are a number of programs at Hopkins aimed at helping breastfeeding mothers returning to work; the vending machine is just a continuation of that work.
Luckily for potential consumers, breastfeeding and breast milk pumping supplies don’t expire the way, say, a bag of Peanut M&Ms does. Let’s hope they also don’t get stuck inside the machine, either.
