It's 12:30 and Renee Solomon just got out of Geography 138. Starvation has set in and she is sure death is certain -- but where to go, what to do, with so little time and only $1.

The answer: vending befriending.

Any Monday through Friday around lunch time in Willard or the HUB lines form before these knob and button laden vendors. Students impatiently stand while digging through purses, bags and pockets with visions of their turn at the machine when treat choices A through Z are theirs for the picking.

One hearty soul who braves these lines bi-weekly is Solomon (junior-foreign service and international politics).

With only half an hour between classes, leaving no time to trot home for lunch, Solomon resorts to a candy bar of some type, a bag of chips and a soda from Willard or the HUB.

"There's no other choice," Solomon said. "I can't afford to wait forever in the Cellar or Fast Break."

Another student who shares Solomon's sentiment is Jacqui Janischek (senior-commercial recreation and tourism). Janischek engages in vending activity three times weekly, and always in the HUB.

"I'm in a hurry and the HUB lines are too long so I get something from the vending machines," she said.

Janischek, who describes herself as health conscious, has some qualms about eating this way.

"Most vending machines don't have healthy food," she explained. In the HUB, however, there is a machine that has fruit and yogurt so Janischek usually indulges in an apple and a soda.

In addition to those who only become vendor befrienders around lunch time, there is also that group of individuals who simply cannot exist without a treat-fest in the evening.

Dave Mann (freshman-engineering) usually scrapes together enough change to visit the vending machines in Findlay commons three or four times a week around midnight.

Luckily for these students, not to mention the hundreds of others who rely on these mechanical suppliers of nourishment, there are 286 vending machines around campus, according to the manager of vending and snack bars.

George McCormick said of these 286, the highest volume machines are located in the HUB, Willard, the student lounge in Pattee and the snack bar lounge in East Halls.

Of the brands of soda available, "Pepsi is our number one seller," McCormick said and Snickers is the favorite candy bar.

For those who live at least part of their lives eating out of vending machines, it's a comfort to know that the high volume machines are filled once a day and it is not unusual for the canned beverage machines to be replenished twice, McCormick said.

However, it may be surprising to learn that employees at the Penn State Nutrition Center such a Chris Clark, a registered dietitian, do not see vending machines as any great threat to life.

"As nutritionists we would really like to see foods that were more nutrient dense," Clark said, "But it is always better to eat something when you're hungry rather than nothing."

Terry Hess (sophomore-journalism), a relative newcomer to the vending scene, only engages in an occasional treat. In discussing future vending exploits, Hess said, "It's only going to get worse."