iBIO is proud to partner with the Little Village Chamber of Commerce (LVCC) to provide a donation of 10,000 KN95 masks from iBIO’s PPE Response Fund to support the residents and business community in Little Village.

The donation of the masks is part of iBIO’s Transform Illinois Initiative leveraging our PPE Fund and community resources to build a more inclusive and resilient life sciences community in Illinois.

While the availability of masks has increased over the past few months, small businesses are facing increased costs incurred for personal protective equipment to protect their employees and customers. iBIO will be making donations from our PPE response fund to support small business communities in Illinois.

LVCC will be distributing the masks to businesses and residents over the next 48 hours.

About Little Village Chamber of Commerce
Founded in 1989, the Little Village Chamber of Commerce has represented the interests of local businesses and the larger bilingual business community of Chicago. Its mission is to support, promote and enhance the growth and success of our local businesses and to leverage the community’s assets, contributions and unique Mexican identity and cultural identity to generate new business opportunities. Our residents and business owners are recognized for their entrepreneurial spirit, strong work ethic and commitment to family and community.

About Little Village
The Little Village is the second-highest-grossing shopping district in the city of Chicago. Little Village is a 2-mile stretch of 26th Street on the Southwest Side, predominantly Mexican-American. The strip lacks the glamour of Michigan Avenue but the area between Kedzie and Kostner avenues is dotted with family-owned restaurants, bakeries, barbershops, grocers and clothing and shops. Nothing about the simple signage or interiors hints at the huge volume of cash being spent: some $900 million annually, according to the most recent figures available, at roughly 1000 businesses along 26th Street. Little Village also has over 80,000 residents.

About the iBIO PPE Response Fund
The iBIO PPE Response Fund provides an equitable distribution of PPE and medical supplies in Illinois in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Seed funding for iBIO’s PPE Fund was provided by Horizon Therapeutics and supporting grants from Astellas, The Lundbeck US Charitable Fund, and the Baxter International Foundation.

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