JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Walid "Tony" Makhluf sits behind his cash register at the Price Rite food store with a smile from "ear-to-ear."
"Hey, Tony!" a customer says excitedly as she walks in.
"How are you ma'am," he replies.
Makhluf knows his customers, and they mean a lot to the Moncrief business owner of more than 20 years. This is why he's decided to tackle the opioid crisis that's plagued the Moncrief area.
"We're saving lives here!" he said with his arms wide open.
Across the store sits Anthony Hubbard. Like a soldier on watch, Hubbard sits. His hands folded and face still, ready to answer the call.
Together, Makhluf and Hubbard have helped save five lives with Narcan, a drug used to help treat an overdose victim.
"I got the stuff right here," Makhluf said as he pointed underneath his register. "I felt so happy to help the lady back to life, I'm so excited."
"I know a couple of them in here and they say if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have made it," Hubbard said.
Hubbard and Makhluf were enlisted by the Overflow Health Alliance, a non-profit whose goal is to teach ordinary citizen how to use Narcan.
"We went in we trained the owners, we trained the staff just because they're there after hours where we're here from 9-5. It's been amazing," Overflow CEO Joshua Harden-Givens said.
A Macon, Georgia native, Harden-Givens started Overflow in 2019. He's hoping Hubbard and Makhluf can inspire others to throw on a cape.
"The community workers, the grandmas, the gatekeepers. It's the people that's actually in the community that's living here every day that's helping save their own people," Harden-Givens said.
"Overflow help us and give us what we need to help them and that's a good thing," Hubbard said.
Overflow says it has trained several other businesses in Moncrief how to use Narcan.
