When the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on April 7 recommended that everyone wear some form of cloth face covering in public settings as a means of reducing the chance of spread of COVID-19, Supply Chain Management’s (SCM) Andrew Clark, director of Strategic Procurement, started the hunt for masks for UCSF staff.

Clark’s original goal was to leverage local/small businesses and/or provide some safety net to people struggling in the Bay Area. He hit a few roadblocks along the way, but he managed to get 25,000 masks from a locally owned business.

SCM had a source out of Cleveland, but when they hiked their price from $2.50 a mask to about $5.95 a mask, Clark reached out to UCSF’s Roberto Vargas (Community Relations) asking who he should call. Vargas put him in touch with BayRising, but they ended up not having enough fabric for 25,000 masks.

Meanwhile, UCSF was also contacted by Timbuk2, a San Francisco-based company. He and Vargas tried to hook BayRising up with Timbuk2 who had enough fabric. When that didn’t pan out due to some logistical issues, Timbuk2 decided to press on, found volunteers and together, all decided to give UCSF the 25,000 masks for free.  

“While I didn’t accomplish my personal goal of providing some safety net income to struggling people, we did solve the University's goal of obtaining cloth masks,” said Clark. “And because of the generosity of Timbuk2 we saved about $70,000.”  

Clark is monitoring production (remotely) and expects UCSF will start receiving masks early next week.