The Tartan

Carnegie Mellon University Health Services (UHS) launched the Wellness To-Go vending machines on Feb. 19, 2024. There are now three vending machines on campus available to the school as well as the larger Pittsburgh community, located in the Tepper School of Business, the Jared L. Cohen University Center, also the Highmark Center for Health and Wellness and Athletics (HCHWA). 

The machines were product of a grassroots effort with the goal to “Increase utilization of emergency contraception (EC) and other sexual health products on Carnegie Mellon’s campus by reducing barriers through vending machines” and to “Increase health literacy on campus of sexual health, pregnancy[,] and sexual transmitted infection prevention and sexual assault prevention.” 

Alongside providing certain free sexual health supplies, the vending machines also sell other health products such as cold and flu supplies. The Wellness To-Go vending machines also dispense free Narcan and condoms supplied by the Allegheny County Health Department, as well as free pregnancy tests provided by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation Reproductive Health Vending Grant. 

The program received initial funding from the Undergraduate Student Senate to purchase the vending machines, but, beyond this funding, the machines were designed to pay for themselves and operate without additional funding from the university. 

The Tartan spoke with UHS Wellness To-Go vending machine project leads Dr. Lisa Schlar, medical director at UHS, and Noah Riley, health promotion program director at UHS, on Wellness To-Go and its first year on campus. 

In their first year, the vending machines dispensed over 10,000 products. Schlar noted that they were “highly successful in meeting our goals” and “super proud of the fact that we have this highly accessible, low cost, private, secure ‘wellness to-go’ … a space where students can go 24/7 to get the products that they need when they need it the most.”

The vending machines are not connected to student IDs and are unable to track who is buying what, but through card transactions and restocking data, it’s possible to track which products are most popular and when the machine is being utilized. By seeing when COVID-19 tests dispension peaks throughout the school year, it’s possible to track COVID-19 surges on campus. 

The vending machines are operated and run with the help of students and staff at University Health Services. “Last semester, Peer Health Advocates (PHAs) were largely responsible for stocking the vending machines so they would rotate shifts, and would go and stock them and get me up to date on what was changed,” Riley said “PHAs have been instrumental in making sure that we have things in the machines in the fall semester, as well as prepping any materials that need prep” such as the condoms and pregnancy tests which are packaged in envelopes. 

The Wellness To-Go pilot project proposal emphasizesthe importance of access to EC in the project’s mission: “Sexual assault is an unfortunate reality on college campuses. Having EC available 24/7 through vending machines will play a critical role in harm reduction in those situations.” 

Harm reduction is also presented as a motivation for the vending machines; in part an effort to provide access to fentanyl test strips and Narcan. 

In the interview, Riley spoke on harm reduction health theory. “What it really does is say, ‘we know that there are people who are going to participate in different kinds of activities’,” Riley said. 

In the case of substance use, “we know that saying ‘don’t do that’ is not generally very effective at making people change behaviors. So we’re going to focus on giving people the tools to do that more safely.” Harm reduction is a concept that can be applied to various topics. “Emergency contraception is a form of harm reduction if someone does not want to get pregnant, but a seat belt is a form of harm reduction, right?” Riley said. “If you think about it, you can find there’s forms of harm reduction everywhere.” The vending machines adhere to the theory of harm reduction by providing “non-stigmatizing, approachable, and accessible” access to these supplies. Riley emphasized, “It’s an initiative that benefits anyone who walks into our buildings.” 

“We are the first university in southwest Pennsylvania, first one in Pittsburgh [to have health vending machines on campus],” Schlar added. “Coming soon, we hope other [universities] will [introduce health vending machines on campus], but in terms of expansion, we think three machines are enough.”   

An additional noteworthy observation from Schlar was on the difference between distributed UHS resources before and after the implementation of the Wellness To-Go vending machines. 

“I think it’s really important to highlight how much EC we’ve been able to dispense through the vending machines versus at UHS.” In 2023, the amount of EC distributed through UHS was 229, but in the first year of the vending machines, there were over 1,300 ECs dispensed. 

Riley emphasized that with the data on dispensing health and harm reduction supplies, “it really goes to show the need.”  

Schlar made it known that in addition to EC, “University Health Services offers comprehensive birth control services, including IUDs and implants … we have available appointments all the time for those services, and even if you don’t have the student health insurance, we welcome you to come into University Health Services and check it out.” 

Schlar said, “I love the fact that our administration, our leadership, is always looking to see what’s working and saying, ‘What should we continue?’ They had a hunch that this Wellness To-Go was going to be important, and now that they see the numbers, they’re super supportive, and we’re going to continue to provide this service.”