North Carolina church provides space for county’s naloxone vending machine

A vending machine that dispenses free naloxone, provided by the Durham County, North Carolina, Department of Public Health, sits outside the side door of St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in Durham. It is part of an effort to reverse opioid drug overdoses. Photo: Durham County Department of Public Health

[Episcopal News Service] St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in downtown Durham, North Carolina, is the newest site for a county public health department vending machine that dispenses free naloxone, also known by its brand name Narcan, to help make it more available throughout the community.

Naloxone is a medication that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose and helps prevent deaths.

The machine was installed on March 2 near the church’s red side door and next to a community fridge, food pantry and period pantry that already are in place there. Those provide items that are donated by the community with a “give what you can, take what you need” philosophy.

Brent Heiser, chair of the St. Joseph’s Community Breakfast Advisory Board, told Episcopal News Service that the church was happy to host the vending machine as part of its community outreach efforts. Those revolve around the church’s breakfast program that serves casseroles, grits, eggs, pancakes and coffee to between 80 and 100 people every weekday. In 2025, the program provided a hot breakfast to more than 15,000 people, thanks to more than 80 regular volunteers and four people who work part-time for the church.

The church also was the first place to host one of the community fridges, he said, with two more now in other locations.

There is a real need for vending machines like the one at St. Joseph’s, Morgan Culver, the harm reduction coordinator for the Durham County Department of Public Health, told ENS by email.

“The United States as a whole, including Durham, has seen a drastic rise in opioid overdose deaths since 2013,” she said. Contributing factors include inadequate access to medical care and drug treatment, homelessness and an unregulated supply of drugs on the streets.

The intent, she said, is that the naloxone in the vending machine would be helpful not only for those who use drugs but also for people who want to have it on hand so they can help someone who has overdosed. The medication is dispensed when people enter the code that is posted on the front of the machine, and there is no limit on the number that can be taken.

This is the first naloxone vending machine in the county that is available around the clock every day, according to a Durham County news release. The other two are in the lobbies of the county’s Human Services building and Detention Center.

The county not only provides the machines but keeps them restocked, thanks to its share of North Carolina’s $50 billion settlement with opioid companies.

“Data tells us that communities with more naloxone have fewer overdose deaths and less drug use overall,” Culver said. “This is why Durham County Public Health chose to make naloxone more available through several mechanisms, including our vending machines.”

Culver called St. Joseph’s “a perfect location” for the new vending machine for several reasons – it is located downtown and is accessible by public transportation, people are aware of and use the community fridge there, and its breakfast program is well known.

Heiser said the church welcomes the opportunity to partner with the county in its new effort to help reduce drug-related deaths. “We are all in this together, in community,” he said. “We need to support each other.”

— Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.