As Santa Barbara County issues an order for community members to wear face masks in public to limit coronavirus, hospital and other health-care workers are still in need of N95 masks.
Last week, India Amarina and Collin Dvorak, of locally based Pacific Grown Organics, donated 500 N95 masks to VNA Health of Santa Barbara (formerly Visiting Nurses and Hospice Care) through their nonprofit arm Pacific Grown Impact.
“We’ve donated these masks on behalf of Pacific Grown Impact, a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to career development and life skills training for workers in the Santa Barbara agricultural industry, including employees of Pacific Grown Organics, and a private foundation that provides scholarships to employees of Pacific Grown Organics and their children,” said Amarina.
Pacific Grown Impact’s mission is to develop a workforce with long-term, management careers in the Carpinteria and Santa Barbara County agricultural industry; empower a workforce and their families with strong employment and financial literacy skills; and support the educational growth and development of Pacific Grown Organics’ employees and their families.
Pacific Grown Impact purchased the masks during the early days of COVID-19. They were quite delayed in their delivery (due to international shipping) and seeing the stabilization locally, the company chose to donate all of the masks to anyone who needed them more, rather than keep them on hand.