Megan Somsel got through Ferris State University on food assistance and Medicaid, living in low-income housing as an independent student. Now, she stocks a free vending machine built for students in her old shoes.

The basic needs vending machine stands outside the David L. Eisler Center, 805 Campus Drive, and gives students hygiene and wellness items around the clock at no cost. Ferris State, Corewell Health and District Health Department No. 10 held a ribbon cutting at 1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23.

“I tell my students all the time that I was in your shoes,” said Somsel, Ferris State’s basic needs care coordinator in the Office of Student Life.

Somsel grew up in Blanchard, about 30 minutes from Big Rapids, and became emancipated from her parents at 17. She graduated from Ferris State in 2017 without knowing the Office of Student Life or the Personal Counseling Center existed, though she carried childhood trauma she said she would have taken to counseling. Ferris State had no food pantry then.

“I wish we had a food pantry back then when I was here because I definitely would have used it,” she said.

Somsel later worked as a case worker for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Now she processes Ferris Cares emergency fund applications, helps students apply for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and builds monthly budgets with them.

“I truly believe that I was put in this role to connect with those students,” she said.

Andy Slater, director of Counseling and Anti-Violence Prevention Programming at the Personal Counseling Center, brought Somsel onto the machine project last December. Corewell Health offered Ferris State a $20,000 grant from opioid settlement funds administered by Mecosta County. Slater managed the grant. Somsel bought the contents, helped design the machine and joined every meeting with Corewell and the manufacturer.

The settlement required naloxone and other risk-reduction items. Corewell left the rest to Ferris State. When full, the machine holds 300 to 500 items across nine categories, including shampoo, toothpaste, menstrual and personal hygiene products, hand sanitizer and toilet paper.

Students enter the code 123 and their student ID number, then choose up to one item per category per hour.

Somsel’s office already hands out hygiene care packages, but only 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The machine covers nights and weekends, and it offers privacy.

“Not all students want to be seen taking a bag full of stuff out with them in the middle of the David Eisler Center,” Somsel said.

Slater sees the machine as a companion to the campus food pantry, which also operates in the Eisler Center.

“They get the food that they need, they get the hygiene stuff they need, they can go home and they can go pass their classes,” he said.

About $8,000 of the grant remains for restocking. Corewell partners told Slater that Ferris State can apply for more, and Somsel’s office holds Bulldog Basic Needs Alliance funds as a backup.

Slater set no usage target. He wants students to know the machine exists. For Somsel, who didn’t know about these resources as a student, that awareness is the point.

“These resources are here and you can utilize them as much as you need to,” she said. “Do it. There’s no shame in it.”

_{Release and photo courtesy of Ferris State University.}