Ohio State students spend a lot of money buying candy bars and chips from vending machines on campus, but the same vending machines now offer a more healthy choice.

Students can choose from foods like bite-sized pretzels, granola bars, fruit snacks, sunflower seeds, fig newtons and several other low-calorie snacks.

Over the past year, many local organizations have worked to provide healthy snack options for students.

“[This is] to help faculty, staff and students eat healthy,” said Katye Miller, a wellness coordinator from the office of Student Life and Wellness Collaborative. The wellness collaborative is composed of faculty, staff and students who are concerned about health and wellness on campus.

The initiative is based off the Snackwise program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, which has partnered with many others on and off campus.

The vending machine company has also taken steps to help students make better decisions about the food they are selecting.

“AVI Food systems work with us a lot to provide education on healthy eating,” Miller said.

The snacks found in these vending machines now have placards that are color-coded green, yellow and red. Green labels indicate “best choice” items, yellow labels say “choose occasionally” and red ones say “choose rarely.” Twenty percent of the items in the vending machines are green, 65 percent are yellow and 15 percent are red.

Many OSU students are glad to see the university encourage students to eat healthy.

Lindsay Bogner, a sophomore in speech and hearing, agrees that it is important for students to try to eat well.

“Eating on the go, it’s so easy to pick up something that’s high in fat,” Bogner said.

She admitted she likes seeing the green symbols on food because she knows she is eating something more healthful.

Students like Josh Davies appreciates that healthful foods outnumber the less healthful.

“I think it’s a bigger step towards getting people to eat healthier and not giving them the choice to eat junk food,” said Davies, a sophomore in genetics. He said that eating well became a bigger concern after his first year of college.

Justin Turner said the decision to eat well depends a lot on the mood he is in.

“It makes me feel better when I eat healthy,” said Turner, a junior in biology and member of the men’s track team.

Each of these students said they try to eat more healthful snacks now that the option is right in front of them.

Samples of the new food will be provided Friday at the Late Night event at the RPAC.

D’Andrea Kinley can be reached at [email protected].