At just 19 years old, Branson Rudeen started Healthy Vending Titans—a vending machine company providing healthy snacks—last year with the help of his father, Brad Rudeen. Now, they have vending machines in two local public schools, Lakewood Ranch High School and Bayshore High School, and are looking to continue expanding throughout Manatee County.  Branson’s initial interest in this business began during high school, when he took cooking classes at Suncoast Technical College. These classes sparked a passion for learning more about the nutritional details of snack foods, leading Branson to open Healthy Vending Titans rather than attend college after he graduated from high school. Last summer, he learned of a company called Vending Accelerator, a sales and marketing education company that mentors clients looking to open vending machine businesses. Working closely with this company allowed Branson to begin learning the ins and outs of the industry before finally launching his own business.  Branson has focused on marketing his business to schools for the revenue opportunities—Vending Accelerator advised him to focus on locations where many potential customers will pass by each day. Now, students love the snacks Branson has made available to them. Each day, he travels to the vending machine locations and restocks machines with a variety of snacks, including ZBars, Nature’s Bakery bars, apple juice and Propel water, among others. Each of the schools greatly appreciates the wide variety of snacks available—Assistant Principal at Bayshore Don French says they began using the machines at the end of the third quarter this spring, and believes students have been excited to have them. “School days are long, and whether they are on their way home or going to sports practice, they're able to get a healthy drink and snack and not have to walk across the street to a convenience store. It's here in a machine,” French says.  Healthy Vending Titans donates a percentage of their profits directly to the schools that have introduced their vending machines. French says that with these donations, Bayshore hopes to create a fund for student and faculty activities.  As they expand their business, Branson hopes to spend the summer reaching out to new schools in Manatee County and working to address current limitations. Currently, schools are only allowed to use the vending machines after lunch in line with Manatee County regulations, which ensure that vending machine snacks are not used to replace meals. Branson would like to work with the county to allow drinks to be sold throughout the day, even before lunch. “You can’t just walk into a school and say, ‘Hey, we want to put a machine in here.’ We had to know our product; we had brochures that we gave to schools, and these things have helped him grow so much. He's learned so much,” Brad said about his son’s business.