Helping With Supply Shortages During The COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 has reached almost all corners of the world and has definitely reached our doors. We had to close the cafe of Black 6 Coffee to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.
No sooner did this happen did we find our mission. As a volunteer base of EMS providers and healthcare workers, we knew the shortage of PPE. With the large number of PUI (Person Under Investigation) with a suspected COVID-19 infection, healthcare workers were utilizing a lot of personal protective equipment. This has created a worldwide shortage in a lot of the equipment used to prevent the spread of the virus. Also, with China being a large manufacturer of these supplies, their production abilities pretty much shutdown as they worked to contain the virus themselves. Our efforts in finding face masks for the victims of the Taal Volcano eruption revealed this.
Our organization, more specifically Black 6 Coffee Trading Co, is part of a cohort of Veteran-owned businesses being helped by NYU Veteran Future Labs to start their businesses. Their support has led to a lot of success in our coffee company as well as our non-profit. Two days before we closed our cafe, NYU Future Labs reached out to us about helping out with the PPE shortage. NYU has a Protoshop lab as well as a MakerSpace where businesses can create prototypes and strategize their manufacturing methods before sourcing their resources for full production. This is also a great way to find solutions to the current PPE shortage.
The Black 6 Project’s role in this initiative is to find a workforce willing to assemble the different pieces together. Given that most gatherings are forbidden, we plan to do a home drop off of the supplies as well as the pick up of the finished equipment. This is an “all-hands” call to find this battle against the virus. This is a similar call to action that occurred during the World Wars. All citizens and resources are asked to focus on this fight against this disease. The biggest challenge is that we cannot work physically close to each other. It is a challenge, but one that we can overcome. With the majority of the workforce working from home, this can be feasible. New York City’s streets are emptier than ever and this will make transporting the material around, so much easier.
If you are able to help, and live in Nassau County and within the boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, please email us at info@black6project.org with your contact information. Also please follow us on Instagram or Facebook for up to date information on our projects by following @black6project
Although we’re physically separated, we can still fight together.