Highmark, locals to produce 1 million face masks
Highmark Health is working with local makers to produce 1 million face masks and looking for out-of-work Pittsburghers to help.
“We’re a community-focused organization and we wanted to make sure we continued along the trend of Pittsburghers helping Pittsburghers,” said Tom Fitzpatrick, a senior vice president at Highmark.
Highmark officials have partnered with fashion designer Kiya Tomlin and several local companies to make cloth face masks that would be distributed to community organizations, health care professionals and commercial employers in Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia.
“Supporting the local businesses, the small and diverse businesses, took utmost priority over speed to market,” Mr. Fitzpatrick said.
Day Owl, a Homewood-based business that manufactures bags from recycled material, and Little Earth, a sports team apparel business on the South Side, are looking to hire around 60 sewers to help with the project. They’ve received a $250,000 forgivable loan from the Richard King Mellon Foundation through Bridgeway Capital to allow them to bring on new employees, purchase material and retool manufacturing to accommodate mass production.
Ms. Tomlin, who owns and operates the Kiya Tomlin Work/ Shop in Etna, is responsible for designing the masks. Her business, which has made masks for support staff at Allegheny Health Network, will also manufacture some of the new masks.
“We got wind from Highmark that the workers loved the masks we were making, the prints we were printing,” Ms. Tomlin said. “In a time like this, they provided a little bit of a pick-me-up.”
She has come up with different designs for each of the four regions Highmark serves: Western Pennsylvania, Central Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia. Two designs for Western Pennsylvania feature the logos of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Penguins.
The three companies are using a model called distributive manufacturing, which entails decentralizing the manufacturing
process by relying on some people working at home. This model has become more popular as businesses transition to remote work during the coronavirus pandemic. The loan from the R.K. Mellon Foundation will provide assistance to sewers who wish to work outside the office but don’t have access to proper equipment.
“This is the type of work that we thought could have an immediate impact on people’s lives and allow them to begin to generate some income,” said foundation director Sam Reiman.
CPI Creative, a womanowned business from Aspinwall that provides custom product design and manufacturing, is working with an undisclosed international supplier to manufacture some of the masks. That will allow the production of 1 million masks over four to five weeks.
The face coverings will first be provided to all of Highmark’s commercial customers with more than 20 employees. The “back-towork toolkits” will include a mask for each employee and return to work material for the entire workplace, including safety signs, a face covering care sheet and a “getting back to business” guide.
Highmark will also send masks to its Affordable Care Act and Medicare Advantage members. Any member may request up to two free face masks at myhighmarkmask.com.
The community affairs team, Mr. Fitzpatrick said, is also working with a number of local organizations to assess their need for face coverings.
Many of the organizations involved in the initiative have already participated in COVID-19 related efforts. Highmark donated 40,000 masks to first responders in May. Day Owl and the R.K. Mellon Foundation came together in March to create 50,000 medical-grade face shields for the health network.
“It’s not just about manufacturing or job creation,” Mr. Reiman said. “It’s balancing those things with the desire to make sure that as few people as possible become sick as a result of the coronavirus.”