Goodwill needs goodwill for itself and 2,300 workers laid off amid coronavirus pandemic
Goodwill Industries of South Florida still wants donations. But the non-profit organization also wants cash donations for its survival and the survival of the 2,200 workers laid off during the coronavirus pandemic.
For the latter, the company has started the Goodwill Employee Emergency Fund on its website. Goodwill says “for every $5,000 we raise, we can provide one week’s pay for 15 of our most financial neediest program participants.”
“This time is critical. Many of them live below the poverty line. It’s incredibly sad. We really need the community’s help right now,” said Lourdes Little, Goodwill’s vice president of marketing and development.
The nonprofit, which CEO David Landsberg said was Miami-Dade’s 17th largest employer before the layoffs, isn’t exactly flush. Landsberg, a former publisher of the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, estimates 82 percent of the company’s income came from its 36 stores and the Allapattah apparel plant where it had been producing military uniforms.
Two businesses remain: a commercial laundry, which does washing for some South Florida hospitals, and a custodial cleaning business that services federal, state and local office buildings.
Cash donations can be made at the website, by calling 305-326-4120 or mailing a check to: Goodwill South Florida, Attn: Lourdes Little, 2121 NW 21st St., Miami, FL, 33142.
“We don’t have enough cash to make it very long,” Landsberg said. “In a month, we could be insolvent.”
The laid off probably don’t have that long. They do the same paycheck-to-paycheck financial hopscotching as many others whose jobs became coronavirus collateral damage, but with even less ability to transition to other jobs.
“The population we work with are the people struggling the most,” Landsberg said, “in that many are disabled in some way with limited skills and mental disorders. I call us ‘the employer of last resort.’ Most of our people can’t just walk into someplace and interview. What we’re doing is getting people’s work capability up to where they can get through an interview.”
This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 6:47 PM.
