Discovery Elementary Unveils Book Vending Machine

WAITE PARK (WJON News) - Students at Discovery Elementary School were on hand Thursday as a new book vending machine was unveiled.

Principal Jennifer Holm says she had seen the machines in other districts, and other buildings within District 742 and began to research how to add a machine to Discovery Elementary School.

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The machine was made possible with support from the City of Waite Park. Mayor Rick Miller says the city used gambling proceeds to purchase the machine and help with the initial books to fill it.

Waite Park Mayor Rick Miller and Principal Jennifer Holm cut the ribbon on the new machine. Photo: Jeff McMahon, WJON

Holm says it will serve as an extra incentive for students to live the Discovery values of being responsible, being respectful, and being safe.

This is a great way to give some publicity to the kids who are doing the right thing and are being role models in our community and our school. Because they're all over the place. This is a way to focus on those positive kids, we have so many.

The book vending machine is filled with books picked by a committee of teachers, and Holm says they work to make sure there’s something for every reader at every level.

So we have some nonfiction, some fiction, and we have all different reading levels. We also tried to choose books that are culturally relevant and have pictures of (characters that) look like our kids. We tried to have a diverse choice of books to have different characters and kids that are in the books.

Teachers will nominate students to receive a token to use at the vending machine. Once a student picks a book, it’s theirs to keep. During the unveiling ceremony, a Discovery third-grader was selected to be the first student to get a book from the machine.

A Discovery 3rd-grader is the first to use the vending machine. Photo: Jeff McMahon, WJON

In the future, the committee will keep track of the more popular titles and keep them in stock. Holm says she’s also looking at stocking the machine with books written in two languages including Spanish and Somali.