Helping people prepare for, find, and keep good jobs is what Goodwill is about.

Hello Everyone and Happy May!

After review of the Governor’s orders from last Friday, we agreed that we could open a couple of spaces that we can operate safely, including limited donation doors and e-commerce. Effective this week, we are happy to be able to collect donations at the stores where we have been collecting personal protective equipment donations for Spectrum and Mercy: Fremont, Grand Haven, Ludington, Holland, North Muskegon, Sherman, and Ellis. Because we also are able to process these donations after a 72-hour quarantine period and to pull items for Shopgoodwill, we will be re-opening e-commerce beginning next week. We are fortunate that maintaining six feet of distance is very possible in the new e-commerce space.

Janitorial services are back up to five days a week and industrial orders continue to come in. As we re-open and begin to expand and bring people back to work, of greatest concern is safety.

In preparing for this, we have determined that one of the most important things we can do to protect the health and safety of all of us is to require the use of masks by staff, clients, and customers. Masks protect everyone else more than they protect the person wearing them, and so we do it for one another. Right now, it is the best way you can show that you care about other people – the people you serve, your customers, your co-workers, your neighbors in the grocery store. If we are going to be out, the best protection happens when everyone is wearing a mask. You are welcome to use your own, but if you don’t have one, we will make sure to give you one. If we can secure enough masks, we will also give them to our customers and clients for at least the first few weeks after opening. It is that important. I know that they are sometimes uncomfortable, but wearing a mask is a discomfort that will actually save lives. We will make sure that we design “mask breaks” into our work days, as the environment and the experience of work will need to change given the presence of the virus, in ways we can predict and in ways we can’t. This needs to be something we can do for one another.

Another requirement before starting work again will be participation in a mandatory safety orientation. Even if you have been working, you will need to participate in training. Education about best practice and an understanding of the seriousness of safety measures will also be key in making sure we can keep ourselves safe. If we adhere to safety precautions, we will never have a situation at work where someone has been in “close contact” with someone who becomes ill with COVID-19. Close contact, according to the CDC, means that someone has been within six feet of someone who is infected for a prolonged period of time or has come into contact with the infected person’s bodily fluids. Our safety measures should protect us from this. 

Mask usage and safety orientation are two things that are part of new protocol currently being created. We are also busy making environmental changes, like Plexiglas sneeze guards installed at cash stands, and we continue to explore where it might be helpful in the organization to expand their use. In every area, we are talking about how best to design safety into our processes. 

As always, my greatest hope is that this finds you and your families healthy and well –

Jeanette