May 7, 2020 7:00 AM

The Nonprofits and Companies Helping to Fight the Pandemic

These organizations are providing direct services, offering special grocery-shopping hours for seniors, and donating supplies.

It’s been a tough few months. At times, it can feel like the world is unraveling. Whether you’re dealing with sickness, social distancing, working from home for the first time, and/or trying to homeschool kids, it isn’t easy. We all want to get back to something close to normal.

We don’t know when that will be, and what that normal will look like, but we wanted to point out a few of the organizations, companies, and brands (big and small) that are chipping in to help. While the government has been struggling to administer tests and get enough supplies for health care workers, these organizations have directly brought resources to the front lines, donated proceeds and supplies, or helped prioritize vulnerable customers.

If we're missing any great companies or efforts, send us an email or comment on this Facebook post so we can include them.

Updated on May 7, 2020: We've added more companies that are donating funds and supplies to Covid-19 relief efforts.

Nonprofits on the Front Lines

If you'd like to donate directly to the charities helping Covid-19 relief, here are a few you might want to consider.

Feeding America has a Covid-19 Response Fund that is helping to ensure food banks across the country can feed those in need right now, including the children who rely on school meals to eat.
Doctors Without Borders is sending aid to the countries hit hardest by Covid-19 and strengthening the infection controls in its already established programs, as well as maintaining existing help in the 70-plus countries it regularly assists.
The World Health Organization is coordinating efforts across the world to respond to existing cases and prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading.
Oxfam America is organizing efforts to increase the delivery of clean water and sanitary supplies to refugees and those living in higher-risk environments.
The Red Cross is in desperate need of blood donations if you're in a position to do so.
World Central Kitchen is delivering chef-prepared meals to those in need.
Team Rubicon, a veteran-based company that provides services during natural disasters and emergencies, has assembled teams across the country to help with logistics, packaging and distributing food, and even supplementing hotline staffing.
Half-Table Man Disaster Relief has been working to feed those in need, including the Coast Guard in Staten Island and the elderly.
Vitamin Angels is a nonprofit which helps undernourished pregnant women and babies at risk of malnutrition.

Be sure to look at local food banks as well as neighborhood Facebook pages that are organizing mask-making and care package efforts.

Grocery Stores Helping Seniors

Photograph: MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images

Seniors and immune-system compromised citizens have been put in a tough position: braving the masses of people sometimes literally fighting at grocery stores and risk catching something, or waiting at home as they run out of supplies. In response, stores across the country are offering special shopping hours for seniors and those with underlying health issues that don't want to be out with hordes of people during this health crisis. You can find an exhaustive list here.

Trader Joe's is opening its doors exclusively to seniors every day from 9 am to 10 am.
Giant Food is reserving an hour every morning from 6 am to 7 am.
Stop & Shop is opening earlier, giving customers 60 and over the opportunity to shop every day from 6 am to 7:30 am.
Costco is offering an hour Tuesday through Thursday from 8 am to 9 am to member 60 years and older.
Walgreens senior hour is Tuesdays from 8 am to 9 am.
Walmart is offering a shopping hour from 6 am to 7 am every Tuesday for customers 60 and up.
Target's first open hour on Wednesdays is reserved for the elderly and those with underlying health concerns.
Food Bazaar Supermarket is only open to seniors from 7 am to 8 am.
Kroger stores across the country have an hour or an hour and a half open for seniors on certain weekdays. You can find individual store information here.

Companies Donating Masks and Supplies

Health care workers on the front lines have been desperately searching for masks amid a shortage. Brands are answering the call by either producing masks themselves or donating their stockpiles. Others, including a YouTuber, are putting together care packages or donating profits directly to charities. Here are a few we've seen.

JBL, through the nonprofit Little Kids Rock, is donating headphones to schools in need to support virtual classes and free streaming music lessons for kids.
T-Mobile is partnering with Verizon, AT&T, and iHeartMedia to donate nearly 40,000 phone chargers to hospitals nationwide for isolated patients to stay connected to loved ones. Verizon has also donated $45 million to Covid-19 relief efforts, $2.5 million to small businesses to support the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and is offering special prices for nurses and teachers.
The nonprofit Perfect Strangers, is providing free delivery of groceries, medications, and other supplies to those at risk. It currently serves Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and the Bay Area. You can apply for help through its website, or volunteer if you’re able to.
Everytable has served 1.5 million meals so far to those in need in the Compton and South Los Angeles areas. The company has also partnered with the LA Mayor's Office to launch the Emergency Senior Meals Response, which is extending delivery of meals to even more senior citizens in the LA area. If you're 60 or older, you can contact the response fund at 213-482-7252 to receive 10 meals per week during the pandemic.
Pampers will be providing $400,000 in technology grants to eligible hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Units in the US, which they hope will allow parents and families to connect with their babies while still abiding by visiting limitations. Email PampersPro.IM@pg.com to get an application.
Arcimoto and the Oregon nonprofit Carry It Forward, are teaming up to field test the Deliverator, a three-wheel electric vehicle designed for local and last-mile delivery. Carry It Forward is using the Deliverator to deliver critical emergency supplies to the homeless in Eugene and Springfield, Oregon.
Ergatta, a Brooklyn-based fitness startup, has raised $10,500 so far for Meals on Wheels’ Covid-19 response fund.
GSN Games raised $217,000 for Meals on Wheels Covid-19 Response Fund.
Splendid Spoon has partnered with Founders Give to supply around 4,000 smoothies and 750 wellness shots to first responders and medical workers in the NYC area.
Seattle-based Tom Bihn, one of our favorite bag manufacturers, has turned its US-based manufacturing line to cloth face masks and is currently donating to around 100 essential businesses and individuals.
Subaru has partnered with Feeding America to help provide 50 million meals nationwide to people impacted by Covid-19.
Stanley Black & Decker has donated 3 million face masks and other personal protective equipment to frontline health care workers and first responders. It has pledged $4 million to support nonprofit organizations helping with Covid-19 response efforts.
Clothing brand Paradised made and donated hundreds of non-medical masks to hospitals. The brand is also offering masks free while supplies last to anyone in the US. Email hello@paradised.com to claim one.
The Company Store donated several hundred cotton sheets to be made into masks to Quilting for a Cause, Sewing Masks for Atlanta Hospitals, TX N95, and Sewers of Southwest Wisconsin. It also donated supplies such as towels, bed linens, and slippers to hospital staff rooms, and pillows and bed linens to shelters in the tri-state area. The Company Store and Garnet Hill each donated cotton sheets to Project Runway alum Amanda Perna, who is sewing face masks for first responders.
Footwear companies Caleres and Crocs have partnered to give free footwear to health care workers. Caleres has also donated N95 masks to health care workers and first responders, and its sister brand Allen Edmonds has shifted production to sewing masks for donation to hospitals.
Outdoor Research is converting a part of its Seattle factory to produce personal protective equipment for health care workers.
Starbucks has donated more than 700,000 meals to food banks across the country and is also donating more than $3 million to global relief efforts.
MGA Entertainment launched Operation Pac-Man to raise money and provide supplies to health care workers. It is also committing $5 million from its children’s brand L.O.L Surprise to get more personal protective equipment to donate. To combat the shortage of ventilators, the designers and engineers from its Little Tikes brand invented a prototype that is being tested at UCLA. It will be produced at the Little Tikes factory in Hudson, Ohio, if clinically approved.
EcoATM Gazelle is donating all of the nearly 300 iPads in its inventory to hospitals. They will be used for telehealth appointments to stop patients from coming to the hospital if it isn't necessary, as well as for quarantined patients in the hospital to communicate with their families and the health care workers caring for them to reduce the use of personal protective equipment.
The bicycle company Specialized is giving free bikes to essential workers.
Nurses and physicians on AT&T's FirstNet network will get three free months of wireless service. The carrier is also offering free FirstNet Ready smartphones for life to first responder public safety agencies, though there are a few conditions that need to be met.
The New York Food Truck Association is partnering with brands like Pipcorn, Core Foods, and Chobani to provide free meals to first responders and health care workers, with a dozen food trucks rotating between hospitals in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The New York City–based organization Donate Beauty is coordinating donations of personal care items like hand and face cream to hospitals. The initiative started when the founders noticed nurses and first responders posting on social media about the toll of continuously wearing medical masks on their skin.
Voyce, a language translation platform, is donating 100,000 minutes of its service to health care workers in the tri-state area to treat non-English speaking patients.
Clothing brand Hanna Andersson is donating its pajama sets to health care workers and patients in adult, children, and baby sizes. It is also donating pajamas to Baby2Baby’s Covid-19 emergency response program.
UGG, with its parent company Deckers, launched the Better Together initiative to donate funds and products equaling $1 million to Covid-19 relief efforts, through monetary and product donations.
New Balance has shifted production to making masks.
Eclipse International, a New Jersey mattress company, has been making and donating masks from the same materials it uses to make mattresses.
L’Oréal USA is donating surgical and N95 respirator masks to hospitals, as well as personal care products to Feed the Children. The company’s North American manufacturing facilities are also beginning production of hand sanitizer to be donated to health care professionals and other folks working on the frontlines.
Osprey’s Colorado-based warranty and repair team is sewing masks for health care workers and front-line responders in and around Cortez, Colorado.
Disney Parks is donating 100,000 N95 masks to New York, California, and Florida. The company is also donating 150,000 rain ponchos, which can be worn over and prolongs the use of personal protective equipment, to the humanitarian organization MedShare.
Inside Story Socks has donated more than 2,000 masks to hospitals across the country. The company is also including a mask with every sock purchase.
Willow is donating breast pumps to health care workers fighting Covid-19.
Aviation Gin, owned by Ryan Reynolds, is donating 30 percent of proceeds from each bottle sold to the United States Bartenders’ Guild, which is providing financial support to those in the bartending industry affected by the Covid-19 closures.
GE Appliances donated 2,500 N95 masks to the University of Louisville Hospital in Kentucky, where the company is based. The company is also donating appliances to health care workers, firefighters, paramedics, and police officers fighting Covid-19.
Helmet brand Thousand is giving away free bike helmets to couriers. Email taylor@explorethousand.com if you qualify.
Gantri, a 3D-printed lamp company, has been using its factory to produce 3D-printed visor frames for health workers.
Spry Therapeutics donated 10,000 of its virus-blocking medical pillows to hospitals across the US.
Keen shoes donated 100,000 pairs of shoes to frontline workers and their families.
Fanatics, the sports apparel company, is teaming up with MLB to switch jersey production to masks and gowns.
Hanes is shifting production to make masks.
Aerosoles is donating sneakers to health care and other essential workers. Email sharethelove@aerosoles.com to request a pair.
Lucky Brand is donating $5,000 and denim to the Suay Sew Shop to produce 5,000 masks. The company has also ordered 2,300 N95 masks that they hope to distribute to health care workers.
Apple donated 10 million face masks to health care facilities.
Google [donated $800 million] to small- and medium-sized businesses, health organizations and health care workers, as well as governments around the world. The company is working with Apple on a contract-tracing app to track (and potentially prevent) the spread of the novel coronavirus.
AstraZeneca said it will donate 9 million face masks.
Razer, the tech company that typically makes laptops and mice, started making surgical masks instead. The CEO tweeted that they intend to donate 1 million masks.
Fashion designer and Project Runway alum Christian Siriano, said he and his sewing staff started making supplies for workers in New York City.
Designer Brandon Maxwell's brand started making gowns and mask covers for medical workers.
Pornhub donated 50,000 masks to New York City workers.
Harbor Freight is donating its entire supply of personal protective equipment to hospitals.
Pocketalk has donated more than 850 of its translation devices to qualifying medical facilities, first responders, and testing sites.
Elijah Daniel, the comedy YouTuber and rapper, organized what he calls Cult for Good, which is handing out care packages for the homeless population of Los Angeles, including soap, food, water, and menstrual hygiene products. After Covid-19 test donations from Vivera Pharmaceuticals, the Cult relief teams will soon be offering free on-site rapid coronavirus tests.
Allbirds is donating a pair of Wool Runners to medical professionals fighting Covid-19. Email together@allbirds.com if you qualify.
Airbnb hosts will provide housing for 100,000 health care workers, first responders, and relief workers around the world.
Nomad, the tech accessory brand, is using its relationships with suppliers in China to produce medical supplies at a reduced cost for health care workers, first responders, and essential businesses, and have sent out over 2 million so far. Any profits gained will be donated to charities and relief efforts. It is also working with DenMat, a Santa Barbara County-based dental company, to produce and distribute hand sanitizer.
Everlywell developed an at-home Covid-19 test that it is providing to health care companies in need for the cost of production only.
One hundred percent of every sale of Popsockets' Dogtor and Open Your Heart grips go to Doctors Without Borders and Feeding America, respectively.
For each Theragun device sold—all of which are currently $150 off—the company is providing 100 meals to Feeding America.

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