Beginning last April, Child Care Aware of Minnesota began collaborating with a sub-group of the Governor’s COVID Education and Child Care Workgroup to distribute critical supplies to child care programs around the state. While it feels like 100 years ago that this all started, I know it has only been a year. Perhaps you can think back to last spring, when there were shortages of every necessary product – masks, hand sanitizer, bleach, and other cleaning products. Child care programs were asked to remain open as essential services, but were often unable to obtain these necessary items. Working together, we were able to procure and distribute cleaning products and personal protective equipment to just over 4,000 programs from April through November 2020.

The team at Think Small was amazing and dedicated countless hours to organize, mobilize, and answer many questions about the process. Our regional offices leveraged their deep connections with local child care programs and exercised immense creativity to figure out how to store, transport, and distribute items during a pandemic. It really does take a village, and we have a wonderful, compassionate village who stepped up in this challenging time!

Here’s the work in numbers:

• 67,000 cloth masks
• 2,846 infrared thermometers
• 1,982,000 gloves
• 57,880 8oz bottles of sanitizer
• 8,022 gallons of bleach
• 15,220 gallons of hand sanitizer
• 12,000 face shields
• 8,000 bottles of hand soap
• 3,840 canister of sanitizing wipes