Heart to Heart International’s Hygiene Kit Program (formerly PowrServ), offers offers fun, competitive, philanthropic team-building events throughout the country engaging participants with hands-on hygiene kits assemblies. When COVID-19 hit in February, the program stopped traveling, as organizations weren’t hosting hygiene kit building events.
But hygiene kits are critically needed in a pandemic. Basic hygiene, especially for the most vulnerable populations, offers the first line of defense against the spread of illness, therefore the kits were more in demand than ever.
So, like many programs and businesses in a pandemic, the Hygiene Kit Program had to modify and find a solution. Instead of one solution, the team developed several.
“Our typical events are social, we have music, generally there’s a big group of people who may have been in meetings all day for work and need an opportunity to decompress. That’s why these events are popular, and we understood that this was going to be a challenge,” said Alex Welter, partner relations for Hygiene Kit Program.
For the past seven months, Hygiene Kit Program has continued business operations in the following ways:
- Through the Sponsor a Kit Program and Do It Yourself assemblies, companies from throughout the country have stepped up and sponsored kits to be distributed throughout the world.
- Launched a new Stay Healthy hygiene kit including personal protective equipment to assist recipients in staying safe during the pandemic.
- After a short closure, Heart to Heart International opened its volunteer kit-building space inside its warehouse in Lenexa, Kansas, for limited and socially distanced kit-building hours during the week.
- Recently, the kit-building space was modified for small groups, practicing social distancing, to sponsor kit-building events at the Lenexa, Kansas, headquarters.
Today, the program is seeking additional companies and organizations to sponsor kit assemblies and distribution. Of course, it is still unknown when the Hygiene Kit Program team will be able to travel for events in the future. In the meantime, hygiene kits will continue to be distributed to homeless shelters, healthcare facilities, school districts, faith-based programs, food pantries, public safety organizations, and much more. These kits include essential items to stay clean such as toothpaste, a washcloth, soap and shampoo.
