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As pandemic rages, child care providers get help with protective supplies

Orange County Register - 1/16/2021

Jan. 16—The businesses helping care for Orange County's youngest residents are getting some help with trying to keep them safe during this unrelenting coronavirus pandemic.

First 5 Orange County, along with some partners, has been distributing much needed face masks, gloves, disinfectant wipes and other supplies to child care providers at a series of recent drive-through events that continue Saturday, Jan. 16, at Boys & Girls Clubs of Garden Grove.

"So many of the providers have really just been through the wringer with the ever-changing COVID-19 regulations," said Mike Anderson, senior program manager for First 5 OC, the local commission of First 5 California, which since 1998 has distributed funding raised through a 50-cent tax on tobacco products.

"They have to be so much more careful, and that can get expensive really quickly," he said.

When the group recently surveyed the 700-plus local providers about what assistance they needed, protective supplies were top of the list for more than half, he said.

As many school campuses remain closed in Orange County, there has been a corresponding need for child care — and more districts recently returned to all-virtual learning at least temporarily during the virus's winter surge.

Two previous drive-through events were held earlier this month at Pretend City in Irvine, and a fourth is planned Tuesday, Jan. 19, in Garden Grove. The group also was able to host a few distributions earlier in the pandemic.

This time, First 5 OC received 19 pallets of in-demand items, which Anderson said should make a dent in the need. "They are getting a lot of supplies this time around."

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