Spokane County and Greater Spokane will distribute more personal protective equipment to small businesses and non-profits Tuesday at the Fairgrounds.
Cara Coon from Greater Spokane says the county bought these supplies for businesses earlier this year with federal CARES Act dollars.
On Tuesday, she says, they’ll hand out boxes filled with supplies such as hand sanitizer and facial coverings.
“We do know that they continue to need both disposable and cloth masks. We do know that they need gloves, which we do have on order. Those have been, throughout this, pretty difficult to get. Those are on their way. We likely will have another distribution event in January that will include gloves. This one won’t," she said.
This is the third public distribution of PPE sponsored by the county and Greater Spokane. Cindy Wendle from the county has been involved with all of them.
“I think the more and more we’ve done this, the more businesses understand that they want to do things safely and they want to be able to provide it. They’re very grateful to the county for being able to do this because it’s getting more expensive on the marketplace. This is another way we feel like we can support the businesses as they try and save every dollar and support their employees on payroll," Wendle said.
Wendle says business owners interested in procuring some must register first at the Greater Spokane website. The distribution is limited to small businesses with fewer than 249 employees and all non-profits whose primary business location is in Spokane County. They can choose to pick up supplies on Tuesday or at a similar event on December 29.
“There may still be a need for this stuff still in February, March, April from everything that we’re hearing. I would say that’s so dynamic, especially at this moment," Coon said.
She says it’s still unknown whether the new stimulus package agreed to by Congress over the weekend will include more CARES Act money.