The following is a letter from Cooperative Home Care Associates and Opportunity Threads to build support for frontline worker -owners responding to COVID-19.
Dear Cooperators,
We need your help. These are unprecedented times and difficult for all of our communities. Adria Powell (president and CEO of Cooperative Home Care Associates) and I are working to try and get home care workers protective surgical masks. Our health care workers are on the front lines and many are having to work without personal protective equipment (PPE).
Our sewing cooperative, Opportunity Threads, is working to re-tool our production so that we can sew PPE. Between our factory and our cooperative network, The Carolina Textile District, we will hopefully be able to produce thousands of masks starting this week.
Many of our manufacturing partners are working to produce masks at or below costs and we are floating costs to get these products out quickly. We are asking for your support for donations through our non-profit, The Industrial Commons. These donations will also us to support producers, procure materials and move as fast as we can. At costs our masks are $2.25. A donation of $13.50 can get a pack of masks (with 5 washes) to protect at CHCA worker for a month. We want to extend this offer to other cooperatives as soon as we are able.
You can donate here. Please mark your donation "cooperative home care worker support." Whatever is raised will be designated PPE for the cooperative community.
If you are able to produce we are aggregating producers here. We are working to centralize supply chains and create open source patterns. If you are in need of PPE you can let us know of your need here.
We need our cooperative community now more than ever. Please consider a donation.
In solidarity,
Adria Powell and Molly Hemstreet