By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
With an excess amount of personal protective equipment, the United Way of Greater St. Joseph is inviting other non-profits to come and get it.
United Way President Kylee Strough says the United Way will have face masks, sanitizer, and small hygiene items to give away on Thursday, March 3rd.
"Some of these items are things United Way has procured throughout COVID and we've been distributing all along," Strough tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "We then got a donation of a couple pallets worth of items from a local retailer and then we have had a couple recent donations of some travel size hygiene items and things like that."
Strough says she isn't sure what the demand is for these items now, with the CDC changing guidelines, and organizations changing their guidelines as well.
So Strough says the items will be handed out to whoever ends up coming in first.
"We're gonna do it first come first serve when we were distributing PPE since March of 2020 It's been a little more methodical and logical and we've had stock and taken requests and filled requests and whatnot," Strough explains. "But it feels like we're kind of nearing the end of this distribution and we just want to make sure it gets in the right hands."
Strough says the United Way has changed some of its regulations, but she isn't sure what the demand will be for these products from other non-profits.
"I know different non-profits have different regulations, I also don't know how many stockpiles people have that they're still working through," Strough says. "So, we want to make this available, we know it's going to help them because I've had several agencies respond that they're going to be there at 10:30 Thursday morning looking for masks, hand sanitizer, and disinfectant.
PPE will be given away by the United Way on March 3rd from 10:30am to 12:30pm at the Hazmat building, located at 312 W Colorado behind Ford's Drive-In, on a first come first serve basis.
Strough adds that if non-profits do need certain items that the United Way ran out of, it will work to order more and help get that product.