A Black-owned medical and life sciences products company headquartered in Canton is donating two million masks to communities in Greater Boston disproportionately impacted by the pandemic to try to reduce infections during the holidays.
Westnet announced the distribution Thursday at the Whittier Street Health Center in Roxbury.
“This is a no-brainer for our company,” said Gordon Thompson, president and CEO of Westnet. “It would be very significant if we did not do it.”
Eleven trucks will deliver masks to health centers, local businesses, senior facilities, public housing locations and places of worship this weekend. Boston sites include Whittier Street in Roxbury, Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Dorchester and the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center.
The donation targets areas hit hard by the pandemic. Boston’s communities of color suffered disproportionately high infection rates and death tolls. These same communities are seeing low vaccination rates compared to other areas of the state, according to an analysis by Boston-area researchers. Speakers at today’s event in Roxbury said these numbers make efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 even more important.
“What Mr. Thompson represents in this moment is why you need businesses of color,” said Michael Curry, CEO of Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers. “It’s not about profits. It’s about when emergencies come up and circumstances come up and conditions are crippling and damaging your community, who steps up and says, ‘No, it’s my responsibility to provide the protection that our communities need.’”
Reverend Miniard Culpepper, senior pastor at Pleasant Hill, said Westnet has been supporting the community since the beginning of the pandemic. Culpepper said that in early 2020, when he told Thompson that local churches needed personal protective gear, a Westnet truck was parked outside his church the next morning with 15,000 masks inside.
“To the churches it was like gold,” Culpepper said. “And he never stopped.”
This weekend’s efforts demonstrate the continued collaboration between local groups to improve community health. For example, when masks are distributed at Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church Friday, Frederica Williams, president and CEO of Whittier Street, will be on site with her staff to provide booster vaccines.
“As the pandemic continues and with the prediction that the infection rates may increase during the winter months, these masks, vaccinations and socially distancing will save lives,” Williams said.
