The Coronavirus is officially declared a global pandemic, and Jake’s Diapers is taking action to prevent Coronavirus from devastating Northeast Wisconsin.

With the coronavirus officially declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization, Jake’s Diapers is taking action to minimize the spread of the disease to the most vulnerable in our local community.

“We can say with fair certainty it’s coming, so let’s get ready while we can,” Executive Director Stephanie Bowers said. 

While WHO admits officials are still learning about how the virus affects people, it does report that older people or those with pre-existing medical conditions appear to “develop more serious illness more often than others.” 

“With that in mind, Jake’s first step is to provide the most vulnerable population with hygiene supplies,” explained Bowers. “This will allow the elderly and those who are income-constrained to self-isolate and minimize the risk of contracting disease.”

We are planning pop up distribution events at places like food pantries with senior days, senior centers and other popular resource locations.

The Oshkosh Area Community Foundation is supporting this effort to help seniors stock up and stay home, with a contribution of $5,000. Additional partners include:

• Oshkosh Police Department
• Heroes of Oshkosh
• The Fire Escape
• Zaroni’s Macaroni and Pizza Pub
• 14&3 A Leadership Development Nonprofit
• 4imprint
• N&M Transfer Company, Inc.

This means we have an increased need for products distributed through our Adult Care Essentials program (A.C.E.) such as incontinence products like Depends. 

We do not anticipate that this will be our only response, and we will continue to monitor the situation and take action as needed. We realize the people we serve, those living in poverty, are also among the most vulnerable to contracting the disease. 

“It is the poorest people who are most at risk of developing chronic diseases and dying prematurely from them,” according to WHO.

We anticipate potential future needs to include:

• Increased need for baby diapers for families thrust into situational poverty, due to with lack of paycheck if an employer closes and cannot continue paying, or when a person with symptoms stays home sick to stop the spread. While some employers are updating sick leave policies to help this issue we do not anticipate this will solve that need entirely.
• We realize school district closures are also possible, such as the closure in Osceola School District closure after someone infected with Coronavirus attended an event at the district last week. Providing period supplies to girls and women impacted here would help with that isolation as well as relieve any financial burden.

As you focus on coronavirus prevention for your own family, we recommend following the updates and guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) here. All of our communities are likely to be impacted differently, so it is of utmost importance to stay up to date on recommendations from state and local public health officials as well.