Published April 15, 2020
In these challenging and uncertain times, all eyes are on the supply chain. As the world deals with COVID-19, people who have never thought about it before are realizing that shipping is essential, and truck drivers are underappreciated champions.
At Leaf, we’ve been feeling frustrated, and trying to find ways to help. We see a great need for shipping of protective equipment and essential goods, but a lack of the planning, scheduling and coordination needed to get the personal protective equipment (PPE) to those who desperately need it.
We’re very excited to have found a way to help. We’re partnering with Masks4America to deliver desperately needed protective masks to embattled hospitals and healthcare workers in the New York metropolitan area (where our headquarters is based).
This weekend we got to help Masks4America deliver 19,000 masks to several area hospitals.
Our CEO, Anshu Prasad, rode along to assist with the deliveries. “Time is of the essence to procure and deliver masks,” he said. “Once we learned what Masks4America was doing, it was inspiring, though completely unsurprising, how quickly we were able to find a carrier in our network who wanted to participate. We learned about the opportunity to help on Wednesday, reached out to carriers on Thursday, and delivered the masks on Saturday.”
The deliveries were made with a truck donated by Opdyke Lumber. “Like many others, I’d been seeing the challenges our frontline medical workers are dealing with and have been frustrated at being unable to help,” said John Opdyke. “When Leaf called looking for someone to deliver masks, it was a great opportunity for us to get involved and donate the use of a truck.”
Masks for America plans to continue delivering masks weekly for the foreseeable future. Leaf will continue to plan, schedule and coordinate these shipments for them, and would love to involve our partners in this effort. If you can donate your time or resources, please let us know.
If you’re unable to participate in this effort, please consider donating to Masks4America. All donations go towards purchasing more masks for our essential healthcare and frontline workers.
While we don’t know what the weeks and months ahead hold, we are grateful to be able to help and confident that we can all make a difference by coming together.
