Marketing

Jewelry vending machine to benefit NYC restaurants

The Marla Aaron jewelry kiosk, shown in a totes and handbag store, will be on the street to help raise funds for World Central Kitchen. Photo courtesy of Marla Aaron.

February 11, 2021

Marla Aaron, a jewelry designer and East Harlem, New York resident, will take her jewelry vending machine to the streets of New York City for the first time as part of a "Take a Seat for Restaurants" campaign to attack the growing hunger and economic crises, according to a press release.

The campaign seeks to encourage restaurants to cook fresh meals for their neighbors in need — at the same time getting food to hungry people and keeping restaurants and their teams open and working.

The jewelry machine will reside for a limited-time starting Feb. 15 outdoors at 1 Rockefeller Plaza, located at Rockefeller Center's South Plaza between 48th & 49th Streets and 5th & 6th Avenues, outside the Today Show Studio — a new thrill for the company who debuted it as an installation at the Brooklyn Museum in 2017 but always dreamt of bringing the "stumble upon" excitement of its machine to the streets of Manhattan. The machine will dispense the actual products, gift-wrapped.

The machine will offer a 2-inch tall sterling silver chair Aaron designed to honor restaurants that are struggling during the pandemic, the proceeds of which will benefit Chef José Andrés' World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit organization that benefit communities.

The chair can be worn on any chain as a necklace or kept as a figurine and sells for $250 with 100% of sales proceeds benefiting World Central Kitchen.

For an update on how the coronavirus pandemic has affected kiosks, click here.