Smart vending machine will serve affordable, healthy meals in Lexington
A high-tech vending machine serving healthy and affordable meals will launch an outdoor kiosk in Lexington later this year.
The kiosk is a partnership between the Louisville-based company Nori and FoodChain Lexington, a nonprofit that provides food programming for locals.
Part of an initiative called The Nori Project, the vending machines aim to revolutionize fresh food access with affordable vending machines that offer nutritious options, inspired by machines found in Japan.
The kiosk will be outside FoodChain’s facility at 501 W. Sixth St., where FoodChain is based, said Anora Morton, Nori’s CEO and founder.
Prices are not yet set for the machine in Lexington, but another Nori location, at the Shawnee Library in Louisville, sells meals for $6 or less, Morton said.
The Lexington machine will mark the company’s third, following two installations in Louisville.
The Nori Project was created in 2022 to help alleviate racial inequality in nutrition among American food deserts — areas where residents do not have easy access to affordable and fresh food.
As of 2023, more than 750,000 people live with food insecurity in Kentucky, making up 16% of the state’s population, according to Feeding America.
Lexington’s machine will offer hot meals, including food crafted by local chefs, with a rotating menu.
The machine can both chill and heat meals using its internal smart microwave system.
“We are essentially creating a kiosk around this vending machine to make sure it’s super weather-proofed and sustainable through all seasons,” Morton said.
Morton said the company is working to create a Tex-Mex dish, too.
“We try to make sure that they’re culturally relevant,” Morton said. “We have a soul food alternative there (Louisville).”
According to its website, the hot vending machine heats meals in less than a minute without an external microwave and has a restocking technology, as its maintenance is operated with real-time tech support.
“One of the main things that I’ve heard is how much fun it is to watch the machine work,” Morton said.
Any unsold food is donated to local organizations working to combat food insecurity in food deserts.
For health safety reasons, each item contains a sticker with expiration date, the vendor who made it, and the full list of ingredients.
“We’re really hoping that we can get picked up by the city and have these machines everywhere across the state, especially in Appalachia as well, where they really need that help,” Morton said.
A week in Japan, a change to Kentucky
Morton was born and raised by her single mother in low-income housing in Versailles — a place where she knew about food insecurity from an early age.
“I didn’t really learn how to eat healthy until I was in my 20s,” Morton said.
During her time as a law school student at the University of Louisville, Morton earned a scholarship to study law in Japan for a week.
Morton said it was a life-changing experience that led her to found The Nori Project, as “ultramodern” and affordable meals are not as common in the U.S., she said.
The name Nori, besides sounding like Anora, the CEO’s first name, is a seaweed in Japanese and one of the treats Morton said she had out of the vending machine in Japan.
“I just fell in love with the vending culture there,” Morton said. “There were machines indoors and outdoors on the sidewalks — and it was the sidewalks that got me the most.
“Everybody deserves access to healthy food.”
This story was originally published July 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
