In rural Alaska, finding basic health and wellness supplies can be a challenge. But in Unalaska, a new 24-hour vending machine is a way for anyone to get those resources for free.
The machine is at the Grand Aleutian Hotel, one of the few places on the island that’s open all the time. It serves as a gathering place for fishermen, visitors waiting out storms, and islanders stopping by for local fare.
Kayla Lopez, a wellness coach for the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, helped install the machine in May. It’s in a small room, the kind where you might normally find a machine stocked with ice or soda.
“We have stuff like naloxone, Narcan,” Lopez said. “And then fentanyl and xylazine test kits. This was Plan B, and that is gone.”
Plan B is an emergency contraceptive.
With grant funding from the Indian Health Service, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium partnered with tribal and community organizations to bring these vending machines to communities across Alaska. Besides Unalaska, they’re now in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Seward, Juneau, Ketchikan, Talkeetna, Kenai, Metlakatla, Naknek and Kotzebue.
Jackie Engebretson is the consortium's director of behavioral health. She said that in rural communities, there can be significant barriers to accessing health services.
“Someone might have to travel a long distance to get to a clinic, or work around limited hours,” she said. “They might even face the stigma associated with asking for certain supplies or purchasing those certain supplies.”
Engebretson said the goal is to make sure people can get the resources they need, when they need them.
The consortium helped stock the machines at first, but Engebretson said the project is community-driven. Local organizations manage the machines from day-to-day, and each community can add its own supplies.
Some machines have offered beading and smudging kits, locally harvested tea, and baby diapers.
Engebretson and Lopez said information about what people take from the machines helps them understand what a community needs. Before selecting an item, users complete a short survey on the machine’s touchscreen. The questions ask for basic demographic information, as well as whether the user has administered naloxone to reverse an overdose in the last six months.
Lopez said the data helps her organization demonstrate community needs when it applies for grants to keep the machine stocked.
Lopez said the Unalaska machine has dispensed more than 100 items over the last three months, with naloxone and hygiene kits being the most popular. Engebretson said she’s seen a similar pattern statewide.
The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association’s health staff led the effort to bring the machine to Unalaska, with Jessica Mata Rukovishnikoff playing a key role. Now that the project’s initial grant has ended, the organization is looking for new ways to keep the machine stocked.
Lopez said the organization will continue to get naloxone through Project Hope, a state-run health initiative. Plan B has also been popular — Lopez said the machine ran out of the emergency contraceptive within a week of being restocked.
Unalaskans Against Sexual Assault and Family Violence donates some of the supplies, including Plan B, which can cost around $40 over-the-counter.
For Lopez, making preventive health supplies freely available to anyone, without visiting a clinic, is especially important on an island community like Unalaska.
“It's free because one of the goals is to remove cost as a barrier to accessing important health and prevention resources,” Lopez said. “So this vending machine is just the start of things for prevention.”
