DEAR ATX:  

Austin Emergency Supply Foundation provides free masks to small businesses and organizations in Austin that cannot afford masks and sells masks to those who can. This is not a business. AESF is a 501c3 charity that plans to lose at least $1 million in 2020 (covered by its founders).

AESF has two options for 3-Ply medical masks for those who can afford to buy masks - 15 cents per mask or 30 cents for the same mask + a free mask for someone else in Austin in need. If you can only afford to buy masks for yourself and pay 15 cents, that’s OK. If you can afford 30 cents, please consider paying more to help others. If you cannot afford to pay for masks at all but are in need, please apply here to receive free masks.

Austin Emergency Supply Foundation (AESF) is a nonprofit foundation created by Austinites to help Austin respond to the pandemic. Jay Sauceda and Ross Epperly from Sauceda Industries have donated their time and helped pull millions of masks and other supplies across the ocean and into a distribution center here in Austin. Some of the masks had to go by boat to Korea and then airplane from there to Austin. The Yacktman Fund, Coon Family Foundation, and others have contributed approximately $3 million to purchase medical supplies for Austin.

AESF has donated 25,000 3-Ply medical masks to APD and provided 40,000 medical masks for free to Cap Metro to give to riders. In addition to Cap Metro and APD, we’ve invited the Austin Fire Department, Austin Public Health, and all eleven Council Members to each choose where 20,000 free surgical masks go (325,000 free masks).

Homemade bandanas are cool, but surgical masks work better. According to this article, “the surgical mask was 3 times more effective in blocking transmission than the homemade mask.” We’ve ordered 4.3 million 3-Ply medical masks for Austin - 2 million are on hand here in Austin and 2 million more are on the way.