The San Diego City College Basic Needs Center opened its new Health and Wellness Vending Machine in room M-200 on Sept. 5.
Students will be able to purchase basic health items for lower prices than they would pay at the pharmacy.
According to the Basic Needs Center, the machine will offer menstrual products, including pads and tampons, for free to supplement those available in the bathrooms. Other basic wellness products such as emergency contraception, condoms, lube, Advil and Tylenol will be available for discounted prices.
“Because I’m in basic needs, I know that a lot of things are not really affordable for students,” said Nydia Dominguez, City’s Basic Needs coordinator. “They’re already experiencing different financial challenges, so accessing wellness products shouldn’t be one of them.”
Dominguez applied to put a vending machine on campus in February 2023 after the state legislature passed AB 2482 in the fall of 2022, which created a pilot program that would put the machines on five community college campuses.
Mesa College is also participating in the program. Their machine opened last May.
The program is paid for with a $15,000 grant from the California Community College Chancellor, with $5,000 going to the purchase of the machine and $10,000 to subsidize the cost of the products, according to Dominguez.
The vending machine was built by Dotstash with programs like this in mind. Mona Powell, the founder and CEO of Dotstash, was personally involved, coming to campus to set up and test the machine, according to Dominguez.
The machine has a futuristic design and is operated via a touch screen that can display information and instructions about how the products should be used. This opens the door to educational opportunities, according to Franchesca Rankin, City College CalFresh Technician who was involved in bringing the program to campus.
Rankin hopes the machine will bring greater consumer consciousness and autonomy to the community by educating students about the products they use and providing them with information about alternatives.
“I’m very excited about just providing the products,” Rankin said, “but I’m really interested to see how the information piece of it might spread and how, on an individual level, it will impact students.”
