Outside of a convenience store, customers typically can find an ice chest, propane tanks and maybe some firewood. At a Twice Daily in Nashville, they will now find something different—a naloxone vending machine.
Naloxone is an inhaled medication used to reverse an opioid overdose while it’s happening. Naloxone vending machines, which provide the medication for free, can help people access doses quickly and reduce someone’s risk of dying from an opioid overdose, according to the nonprofit group Fund Recovery, which unveiled the machine earlier this month in partnership with Twice Daily.
Fund Recovery and Twice Daily debuted the naloxone vending machine on April 16 at a Twice Daily convenience store at 1702 West End Ave. in Nashville.
“The machine has been on our property for one week and one day, and it has been filled three times already,” Dawn Boulanger (pictured above), vice president of marketing at Tri Star Energy, the parent company of Twice Daily, told CSP Daily News on Wednesday.
That’s more than 1,000 dosages of naloxone dispensed, she said. Fund Recovery secures the money needed for the machine, while the local health department is responsible for refilling it, Boulanger said.
Davidson Country ranks over two and a half times the national average overdose rate, and one of the ways Fund Recovery is helping combat the opioid epidemic is by adding Padigus Naloxone vending machines throughout Tennessee and beyond. Fund Recovery has partnered with Reach United to bring free naloxone vending machines to local communities. The organization said the vending machine outside of Twice Daily is the first in Nashville.
“This is a monumental step in the right direction for the city of Nashville,” said Ryan Cain, board chair of Fund Recovery. “No one is exempt from trials and tribulations in this life, and our volunteers and board members each carry their own past experiences and stories of behavioral health and substance misuse. We understand, and we’re here to help provide the level of care and support everyone deserves.”
Fund Recovery hopes that all people, whether they personally use substances or not, carry naloxone.
- Tri Star Energy/Twice Daily is No. 42 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count.
“As a Nashville-based, locally owned business, we understand our responsibility to address the urgent needs of our community,” Boulanger said. “It’s been a privilege to partner with Fund Recovery to install Nashville’s first naloxone vending machine available at a convenience store. This initiative goes beyond traditional convenience store offerings—it’s about leveraging our location and accessibility to provide potentially life-saving resources to our guests and neighbors. We’re proud to be at the forefront of this innovative approach to combating the opioid epidemic in middle Tennessee.”
Boulanger said they chose the store at 1702 West End Ave. in Nashville to place the vending machine because it is heavily trafficked—not because the store had problems with people overdosing there. The store is located about 1 mile southwest of the main stretch of Broadway Street, Nashville’s downtown hub.
“It’s not people necessarily that are taking the drugs that are the ones that are getting the Narcan,” Boulanger said. “It is people who could be in a position that would need it.”
In March 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan as the first naloxone product for use without a prescription. The action allowed the medication to be sold directly to consumers in places such as convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores and drug stores, as well as online. Some gas stations and convenience stores in Chicago and EG America have worked to make naloxone available in some locations.
Nashville-based Tri Star Energy owns and operates c-stores through middle Tennessee under the Twice Daily and White Bison brands. The company had 179 stores as of Jan. 1.
Fund Recovery was founded in 2011 with the mission to reduce stigma and to provide funding to directly support people struggling with mental health or substance misuse who cannot otherwise afford help. Fund Recovery provides monetary aid for therapy, drug and alcohol treatment, transportation, medication and sober living.
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