Want to share holiday gifts around the world? You can in Atlanta thanks to this vending machine

ATLANTA, Ga. — Give a family in Africa a goat for Christmas?  You can in Atlanta.

Nancy Shay says her go-to snack from a vending machine is usually a Snickers bar.  “This is pretty neat!  It’s pretty neat,” Nancy said.

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She means the choices from the machines set up at The Interlock in Northwest Atlanta, offering a pig, a goat, or some chickens.

“Kind of different isn’t it,” Andrew Galt said. 

Galt is with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the organization that organized “The Light of the World Mobile Giving Machines.”

“When you think of a vending machine, you go buy a soda or candy or chips---it’s for yourself.  This twists that around.  It’s a vending machine where you buy something for somebody else,” Galt said.

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It allows folks to send gifts this Christmas, ranging in price from $5 to $140, to people in need on the other side of the globe or in Atlanta.

“You select the number just like a regular vending machine of the product you want to purchase,” the church’s Tiffany Bird said.

The church has 28 rows of Giving Machines around the country, helping several different non-profits that will help those in need. 

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The church covers all operating expenses, so 100 percent of what is given goes to charity.  The farm animals will be sent to places like Africa. 

Stateside, the gifts include clothes and meals and special presents for children. 

Nancy Shay is giving food, coats, and shoes.  The 70 dollar total was a little more than she was used to paying at a vending machine.

“It was a pretty expensive Snickers bar, but I’m happy to do it,” Nancy said.

Local charities in the vending machines include Wellspring Living which helps sex trafficking victims, and The Children’s Haven, which helps with foster care.  Last year the Mormon Church had just ten vending machine sites, and people donated $6,000,000 to charities. 

The Giving Machines will be in Atlanta for a week.

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