Grace Farms donates PPE to Native communities
NEW CANAAN — What started as a temporary measure last year to bolster stocks of personal protective equipment (PPE) around the state is culminating in the donation of much-needed supplies to Native communities in four Western states by Grace Farms Foundation in association with contemporary artist and activist Carrie Mae Weems.
“Since the onset of this pandemic, the relief work that we have been doing, making sure we have been able to provide PPE for Connecticut frontline workers and working with (Weems), we’ve been really focused on where the need is,” Grace Farms Foundation founder and CEO Sharon Prince told Hearst Connecticut Media. “With the magnitude of this lifethreatening pandemic, we recognized that Native communities are still very much in need. Communities like these, ones that have been hit hardest by (COVID-19), are unfortunately historically underserved communities.”
Grace Farms, which has been focusing more locally and regionally over most of 2020, is now sending over 44,000 medical-grade PPE pieces to eight clinics serving Native communities in Arizona, Utah, South Dakota
and Oklahoma.
According to Prince, that breakdown includes 3,200 N95 or KN95 masks, 15,200 face shields, 960 isolation coveralls and 24,000 boxes of single-use medical gloves.
“In New Canaan, we have worked with emergency centers and identified exactly what they needed and were able to turn around inventory in 24 hours. We were able to know exactly what we needed in our communities,” Prince said. “But in this case, (Weems) knew.
These clinics have been working for a long time in these communities. They were the most in need.”
Four of the clinics serving the Native communities that will receive the PPE are in Oklahoma, two are in Arizona, and there is one each in South Dakota and Utah.
Grace Farms and Weems are referring to this as the Resist Covid/Take 6! Initiative.
“With over 29 million infected and more than 525,000 deaths—and counting—in this country, we
finally have safe vaccines against COVID-19. I've taken my shot!” said Weems in a release. “With this public awareness campaign, we hope to help, in some small way, to save lives. We must protect ourselves and our elders.”
Prince lauded the efforts of Weems to pinpoint communities of need.
“The Native communities in these states are still in dire need of PPE,” Prince said. “Wearing masks is still important and it will be important for months to come, at least.”
The amount of PPE that Grace Farms is shipping to these clinics is the last remaining medical equipment that the organization has at its disposal, capping off a calendar year of giving back.
“Including the recent donation of 44,000 pieces of PPE to Native communities, Grace Farms Foundation has provided PPE to 62 organizations,” Prince said.
More than 405,000 pieces of PPE have been distributed through the Connecticut Community Foundation
to non-profit organizations working in the Greater Waterbury area to serve under-resourced communities.
To date, Grace Farms Foundation has donated 43,600 pieces of PPE to home health care workers, visiting nurses and hospice workers in Connecticut, 30,555 pieces of PPE to assisted living facilities such as Waveny Care, 32,600 pieces of PPE to people without housing and those with limited access to health care through Community Health Center and 20,000 pieces of PPE to Optimus, which distributed PPE throughout Bridgeport to clinics serving those in need.
Prince was adamant that her organization's goal is to continue to fight against disparities in resources and aid between communities.
“I would hope that it is important to everyone to use their wherewithal and their resources to address disparities between different communities of people, and we certainly aim to do that and to integrate more grace and peace in the world. That is Grace Farms,” she said. “We are a platform that can leverage and advance good, and it is important to demonstrate what we are advocating for.”