it's an idea that saved lives if you can't afford your life-saving medication you can come to the charitable Pharmacy in Red Bank and get it for free the concept created by its owner ritesh Shah who wanted to serve his struggling neighbors as a way to honor the life of his sister who passed away two years ago in India we spoke to Shaw just a few months after he launched the pharmacy and he's joining me now to give us an update on the impact he's had on his community one year after opening ratesh you are doing some incredible work at your Pharmacy in Red Bank tell us how many people have you served how many medications have you given out for free in the last year so uh we have more than 250 customers right now at our charitable Pharmacy a few lives in shelter if he lives locally and we heard dispense uh about 230 medications out of there we have some insulin some life-saving medication for blood pressure diabetes and mental illness currently we filled close to about 2400 prescriptions that have saved almost 170 thousand dollars to uh those patients who cannot afford to pay for their medications so how do people qualify and is this right now only people in Red Bank who can use your services no anyone who lives in New Jersey or Southern account they can come our doors are open uh anyone who lives under federal poverty guidelines and in my uh way of saying it if you have to choose whether you want to put food on the table or you want to put that money towards your medication my doors are open for them you know it's a community health care center we are doing it uh for those who cannot effort to buy medication and not insured you've been getting calls to expand the operation is this a model that can be sustained financially even just in Red Bank and can it be scaled to other places well that would be a great thought and a lot of people has been reaching out to us so that's uh it's in a pipeline but it can be scaled if uh you know rights resources are put into the into the system uh it can be sustainable uh we are one year out and uh we are going in our second year and uh we we think uh we'll we'll be there forever just quickly uh you mentioned when you spoke to our correspondent Melissa Rose Cooper that you had a board that was really helping financially is this a model that would require donations that will require the support of philanthropic entities well yes so everything uh as I said earlier uh you know we own the building so we put it for this purpose and so we don't have to worry about it and a pharmacist um you know luckily my wife is promises now we have staff pharmacists uh and it's family funded uh we did uh if fundraiser last year we also have our second fundraiser coming on June 30th and a family and friends uh yeah really uh open up their wallets uh to support for this cause you know every dollar that we receive 90 cents goes for medication purpose uh and uh because we don't have that much overhead and just very quickly I know this is really personal for you how has doing this work changed you um what is this meant for you and for the memory of your sister we all wanted to make sure medication access uh you know which is a basic necessity is it is it's there for people who don't have medical insurance or prescription coverage uh I'm doing uh you know something that we lost uh in my family in our life my baby sister so we are doing uh in her honor uh it's a good feeling I don't know how to explain that but uh if you can say one more life uh you know he'll be here still for me rates Shah owner of the charitable Pharmacy thank you so much thank you [Music]