Grace Pharmacy is a program of the secular nonprofit Grace Healthcare Services, which is located in northeast Gainesville, Florida at Grace Marketplace, a full-service campus for people who are unhoused. Grace Pharmacy, which calls itself “the pharmacy with no cash register,” was established in 2017 to provide free prescriptions to the uninsured low-income and unhoused people of Alachua County. As the only pharmacy for unhoused people, it also fills scripts for patients from four county safety-net clinics.
It is staffed 20 hours a week by volunteer pharmacists and 8 hours a week by a paid pharmacist; together, they filled 6000 scripts in 2020. RWN Foundation’s grant will increase its paid pharmacist’s hours to 18 hours per week to help accommodate increased demand and to ensure stable staffing for the pharmacy’s services going forward. Giving people consistent access to the medications they need makes a huge difference both in terms of individuals’ health and economic wellbeing, and in terms of health systems’ capacity; accordingly, we were grateful for the opportunity to support Grace Pharmacy’s frontline work.