Dispenser with temperature control

A temperature-controlled dispenser for a variety of food service items, particularly items having given outside dimensions along three axes, comprising:

• (a) a casing having a transverse partition including a thermally-conductive shoe of U-shaped cross section providing a channel cooperating with the casing to form a storage receptacle for said items at one side of said partition, said receptacle defining an upright channel having a horizontal depth sufficiently greater than the largest of the outside dimensions of the particular items, but less than three times the largest of said outside dimensions, whereby said items may tumble down through said channel close to said shoe,
• (b) means to cause air to flow in a flow path through a chamber in said casing on the other side of said partition,
• (c) electrically-powered heat exchange means mounted in said partition with one face thermally coupled to said shoe and an opposite face exposed to said flow path in said chamber;
• (d) means to supply electrical power to said heat exchange means to heat one of said faces and cool the other of said faces to thereby control the temperature of said shoe channel and thereby the temperature within the channel and said receptacle, and
• (e) said casing having discharge opening means providing access to the bottom of said receptacle for removing items stored in said receptacle and a charging opening providing access to the top of said receptacle for introducing items into said receptacle at the top for passage through said channel prior to being removed, said discharge opening means being dimensioned and arranged to prevent the items in said receptacle from falling freely through said discharge opening and to permit accumulation of a plurality of items in said receptacle adjacent the discharge opening, so as to permit manual removal of one or more of said items.