MSP Airport Launches Healthy Meal Vending Machines

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) has expanded its award-winning concession program with the debut of Farmer’s Fridge, an innovative vending machine brand that sells fresh and healthy meal options.

The smart-tech refrigerated vending units offer a menu of fresh salads, meal bowls, and healthy snacks, with a focus on premium and fresh ingredients. The company uses technology to continually track inventory for freshness and stock products that are customized to customer preference trends at each vending unit.

“Farmer’s Fridge meets a growing demand for fresh and healthy meal alternatives at the airport and also accommodates those who don’t have time for traditional dine-in venues or food-to-go queue lines,” said Isabella Rhawie, Assistant Director for Concessions and Business Development for the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), which operates MSP. “The vending machine platform allows us to expand our reach to customers with multiple placements in our terminals and concourses, accessible 24 hours a day.”

MSP is the first location for Farmer’s Fridge in Minnesota for the Chicago-based company, which operates more than 400 vending units across the country in airports, hospitals, office buildings, universities and other locations. Seven vending machines are in Terminal 1, with locations in the Main Mall Food Court, and near gates F8, E12, C7, C10, C18, and in baggage claim near Carousel 6. Another unit is operating in T2 near gate H10.

The Farmer’s Fridge vending units also promote a more sustainable incentive for customers, allowing them to deposit their BPA-free containers back into the machine, where they are later collected to be recycled.

MSP’s concessions program features 130 restaurant and shops; 80 have opened in just the last five years. The program has received the ACI-NA Richard A. Griesbach Award of Excellence for Overall Concession Program and was honored with Best Overall Airport Offering for the Americas handed out in 2019 by the Moodie Davitt Report FAB Awards. In 2020, MSP was named to the ACI’s Director General’s Roll of Excellence in Airport Service Quality, after winning Best Airport in North America (in its size category) for four straight years.