A program designed to create 10 free public health vending machines around the city quietly ended at the end of May with just four installed in Brooklyn and Queens, THE CITY reported.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene unveiled the city’s first public health vending machine on June 5, 2023. Provided by city funding and community outreach organizations, they were installed to promote “24/7 access to lifesaving harm reduction supplies conveniently and anonymously,” in order to meet a goal outlined in the city’s mental health plan.
When the department first announced the program in January 2022, it planned for 10 public health vending machines, and was backed by $750,000 in the city funding.
Since last June, the four existing machines, all located east of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, including two in Queens, have dispensed over 18,000 items. These include everything from COVID tests and safe sex products to fentanyl test strips and 2,100 naloxone kits to reverse overdoses, according to the department.
The machines don’t actually “vend,” as they provide everything free of charge so long as users can enter a NYC zip code before they select an item.
A spokesperson for the department, Rachel Vick, told THE CITY that the initiative obtained funding for 10 machines but not enough eligible organizations were interested in managing the machines to launch the full plan. Each machine is managed by a different community-based organization and stocks items specific to each neighborhood’s needs, but all have harm-reduction supplies for drug users, COVID tests, personal hygiene items, and safe sex kits.
The nonprofit Services for the Underserved installed the city’s first machine in Bushwick last June. Months later in November, the AIDS Center of Queens County put up vending machines in Far Rockaway and Jamaica, while VOCAL-NY, which organizes and serves those with low-income affected by HIV/AIDS, set the fourth and final vending machine in Brooklyn’s East New York in May. While the city planned for the machines to be in any of the 12 priority neighborhoods with high rates of overdoses and a lack of resources, only two of the four are located in these areas (Far Rockaway and East New York).
While the department has assured its commitment to expanding services to prevent overdose deaths and providing critical health products, it has no present plan to expand the vending machine program into more neighborhoods.
