HHC spotlights Kyndall for National Pharmacist Day

While the Hunger and Health Coalition is a food pantry, it sometimes shocks community members when they learn about our pharmacy operations and how we can dispense free medications to clients who qualify. 

In 2023, the HHC pharmacy averaged 360 client visits a month. The pharmacy staff took on 297 new clients and filled more than 18,000 prescriptions in 2023. Each medication that goes out of our doors and into the hands of clients is checked by Kyndall Monroe, PharmD. As we observe National Pharmacists Day on Friday, Jan. 12, we’re taking the opportunity to highlight Kendall and her work in the HHC pharmacy. 

Growing up in a family of nurses, Kyndall said she remembers being interested in chemistry at a young age and researching medications and how they work. Kyndall completed her underagraduate degree from the University of Tennessee Knoxville and and then attended Mercer University College of Pharmacy, completing her doctorate in 2013. She then completed her licensure and pharmacy rotations in New Mexico. She’s worked in retail pharmacy, as a pharmacist for Poison Control, as well as for a COVID-19 hotline when she was in New Mexico.

Kyndall and her husband moved to North Carolina in late 2020; at the time she worked from home for Poison Control taking calls from those phoning in from the northern parts of Florida. Seeking a change, Kyndall started working as the pharmacist for the Hunger and Health Coalition in May 2023.

She said she was interested in the Hunger and Health Coalition and its free pharmacy model because she believes “health care should not cost an arm and a leg” and that “the best way to prevent “exorbitant health care costs is to help try to prevent the conditions from occurring.”

Kyndall checks each prescription before it is given out to ensure medications are of the right patient, the correct strength, that it’s for the medical condition for which i is indicated, and that there will not be any siginifcant drug interactions with other medications a clients takes. Kyndall can council people on how to take the medication, what side effects to look for, and what dosage may be best for them. Because she is a certified specialist in poison information, she can also help give clients advice in the case of accidentally taking too much medication or if they are bitten by a poisonous critter. She can give advice on medical conditions, but would direct a client to consult a doctor for any diagnoses. 

“Being a pharmacist, you’re kind of a jack of trades,” Kyndall said. “You get every question under the sun and you usually know where to direct people if you don’t have the answer or can’t help them directly.”

Most medications that flow through the HHC pharmacy are bought from pharmaceutical drug wholesalers. Kyndall said sometimes the public doesn't know that the HHC pharmacy can also take prescription donations as long as the medication is not expired and has been kept in the right conditions — such as temperature — for that medication type. 

For more information on the HHC pharmacy, visit www.hungerhealthcoalition.com/ph armacy. To ask our pharmacy staff questions about eligibility requirements or other pharmacy questions, call 828 264-5212. If needing refills, please call our pharmacy staff ahead of your preferred pickup date to ensure the medication is ready for pickup.