Ocean State Job Lot, which has a location in Rockland and Belfast, is distributing more than $1.5 million worth of PPE to police and fire departments in the 142 communities where Ocean State Job Lot stores are currently, or soon-to-be, located across the Northeast.

The donations include 6,000 surgical masks, 3,200 KN95 masks, 40 gallons of hand sanitizer, 20 face shields and 30 infrared non-contact thermometers, a total retail value of over $11,000, to each community. 

“With our unique buying power and access to countless vendors, we’ve put an enormous amount of effort into securing large quantities of personal protective equipment throughout the pandemic,” said David Sarlitto, Executive Director of the Ocean State Job Lot Charitable Foundation. “We hope these donations to the men and women working around the clock to keep us safe and healthy, will help keep them safe and healthy.”

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to food donations, the Ocean State Job Lot Charitable Foundation has consistently and actively invested in providing relief to the communities in which it operates, a press release boasted.

In late March, OSJL contributed $250,000 to a fund dedicated to acquiring critical supplies needed in the fight against COVID-19 by leveraging its unique buying power to quickly and affordably source items such as gloves, masks, disinfectants, sanitizers, eye protection, and more from its vendors.

The Foundation distributed more than 1.2 million surgical masks to those on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19, including 4,800 to each police and fire department in the communities in which its stores are located (including those donated as part of this initiative).

OSJL continues to utilize its global supply chain, per the news release, to source critically-needed face masks and other PPE and supplies, which are being donated to hospitals and other medical facilities in the region. 

Also, in April, OSJL launched the ‘Mask Fabric For Free’ campaign, which upon completion supplied customers with the fabric necessary to create an estimated 1.8 million homemade cloth face masks.