NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ocean State Job Lot Charitable Foundation has leveraged its global supply chain to provide hundreds of thousands of pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) to healthcare organizations and municipalities, a news release stated.

In continuation of that effort, the Foundation is currently distributing more than $1.7 million worth of additional PPE to police and fire departments in the 142 communities where Ocean State Job Lot stores are located across the Northeast.

Ocean State Job Lot has a location in Rockland and Belfast. 

The donations include pallets of PPE including face shields, KN95 masks, antibacterial and disinfecting hand wipes, and hand sanitizer, for a total retail value of $12,000 to each community.

“As this global health crisis continues to take a toll on our healthcare and public safety systems, it’s imperative to provide any support and relief to our frontline workers that we can,” said David Sarlitto, Executive Director of the Ocean State Job Lot Charitable Foundation. “At OSJL, we’re deeply invested in philanthropy and community reinvestment, and these donations are just another example of our commitment to that as well as the incredible generosity of our customers. While we can’t ever repay our frontline workers for the lifesaving work that they do, we’ll continue to partner with our customers to do what we can to provide the tools necessary to make their jobs easier and keep them safe.”

Since late March 2020, OSJL has acquired and distributed more than $15 million worth of critical supplies needed in the fight against COVID-19, such as gloves, masks, disinfectants, sanitizers, eye protection, and more.

Prior to this new round of donations, the Foundation had already handed out more than 1.2 million surgical masks to those on the frontlines, including 4,800 to each police and fire department in the communities in which its stores are located.

In September, the Foundation distributed premium massage chairs, valued at nearly $7,000 each, to hospitals throughout the Northeast to provide healthcare workers with an opportunity to relieve stress.

These efforts are in addition to its many ongoing charitable activities, including OSJL’s ‘Mask Fabric for Free’ campaign, which supplied customers with the fabric necessary to create an estimated 1.8 million homemade cloth face masks, the release noted.