The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says wearing homemade cloth face coverings can help slow the spread of COVID-19. Jessica Strong, community health improvement manager at Primary Children’s Hospital, found one way to provide free cloth face coverings for families in need.
Jessica coordinated with Annie Russell from Intermountain’s Supply Chain team to set aside any donated cloth face coverings that weren’t usable within Intermountain so we could donate them to local school districts providing free meals to families in need.
“I’ve been concerned about low-income families getting access to cloth face masks to wear in public,” says Jessica. “I love that our community is pitching in and helping Intermountain collect cloth face masks. But I also love that we’re able to pass the ones we’re unable to use back to the community. It creates a beautiful circle of giving.”
Intermountain can’t process donated face coverings that have metal pieces in the nose or ties. Jessica also found many of the masks lack ear-loop elastic, or the elastic is ruined during the laundering process. The Central Laundry is setting those face coverings aside and when a significant number of them are collected, Jessica picks them up, sorts them, personally repairs the masks that need ear-loops or other repairs, and delivers them to school districts.
“The first week, I picked up a huge box from Supply Chain and took a bag of about 200 masks to the Salt Lake School District,” says Jessica. “I have since delivered other bags to the Granite and Jordan school districts, and I’m sorting through another batch I plan to provide to Canyons School District. In addition to providing them with the masks, I include a handout on How to Wear a Mask so they can share that with the families, too.”
Jessica estimates that 400 to 800 masks have been donated to school districts in Salt Lake County. She hopes to branch out to other communities as more masks are collected.