A vending machine that used to sell bait and tackle in Michigan is now handing out prompts for kindness.
Nearly four years ago, Michigan artist Andrea Zelenak came up with the idea to turn an old bait and tackle vending machine into something that could do more for the community. In 2022, the Detroit-area artist installed a refurbished, brightly colored vending machine on Monroe Avenue in Grand Rapids and called it The Kindness Challenge.
Inside were three kinds of challenges aimed at getting people to do something kind for someone else. Green challenges are easy, yellow challenges are medium, and pink challenges are the most difficult to carry out.
Zelenak first got a grant from an organization in Grand Rapids to create the project. As the owner of what she calls “an encouragement shop” called Inkcourage, she said she wanted to make doing good accessible to everyone.
“The idea is that one act of kindness can create a wave of kindness in a community,” she told ABC 13 News, “so I’m really just challenging people to do one small act of kindness in order to create this bigger wave.”
The project is still running in 2026. Over the years, the vending machine has traveled around Michigan to art festivals and different retail and arts districts. It is now in Detroit, outside Zelenak’s store.
“You can come up , it’s open 24/7 , so you can come any time you want, and grab a mystery item from the machine,” Zelenak said in a recent social media video. “It’s inspired by the butterfly effect, so the idea is that when you do one random act of kindness for somebody, it creates a ripple of kindness in your community.”
The machine works like a standard vending machine. It takes cash, coins and tap-to-pay options. FOX17 reported in 2022 that each item costs $3, and that the money goes back into creating more kindness challenges.
Each purchase dispenses an envelope with what a person might need to carry out the act of kindness inside. The challenges can be simple. They might ask someone to give a warm hat to a person in need, share a stick of gum, write a thank you note or post encouraging words in public.
Thousands of people have taken part since the machine started operating. During a recent installation at ArtPrize, Zelenak said more than 3,000 acts of kindness had been dispensed and that she ran out of challenges during the event.
The machine gives out specific assignments, but Zelenak said she also wants people to think about the impact kind words can have.
“If somebody says something kind to you, you will remember that for maybe a week, or five years, or the rest of your life,” she told ABC 13. “So I really feel like these words are really powerful no matter what you do with it.”
She has also tied the project to the butterfly effect in describing how a small act can spread further than the person doing it may ever know.
“The story goes, when a butterfly flaps its wings in Texas, it can set off a hurricane in Japan. One small action can create a ripple and lead to bigger, unpredictable things,” she writes on her website.
“A simple act of kindness can make a huge difference and create a wave of kindness. Kindness is magic. Don’t underestimate it.”
📸credit: InkCourage/Instagram
