Olive & Loom Sending Care Packages To Coronavirus Hospital Staff

BETHESDA, MD — A small business in North Bethesda is stepping up to help caregivers during the new coronavirus outbreak.

Olive & Loom — a Mediterranean-inspired lifestyle and apothecary boutique — announced that it is partnering with Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and other D.C. area medical facilities to send care packages to health care workers on the front lines of the coronavirus battle.

At a time when small businesses are shuttering their doors — sometimes for good — due to coronavirus restrictions, Olive & Loom founder Ferzan Jaege says these care packages will help sustain her business and the many doctors and nurses working around the clock to protect the community.

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"With all the uncertainty of what's going on, we were thinking: 'How are we going to keep our business alive?'" Jaege told Patch. "But then at the same time, it didn't really feel quite right to ask people to buy from me and help me to keep my business open. That's when we thought of asking people to help us, but then to turn around and do something nice with that support."

Customers can purchase the curated care packages online for $24. Each care package will contain a handwritten "thank you" note and any three items from Olive & Loom's collection of travel size hand creams and lotions, olive oil-based soaps, hand-pressed bath bombs and "fizzys," and small-batch soy candles.

"It's obviously not what they need. It's not like we're sending them food or anything," Jaege said. "But we want them to remember that we are constantly thinking of them and they are not being taken for granted.

"When they go home and have a minute to themselves, they can open the care package and read the personal note. It can give them a little more momentum and make them realize that they can get through this and they have a whole community behind them supporting them emotionally. That is the goal."

Before customers can add the care package to their shopping cart, they will be asked to click the "Shipped" button or "#GiftsWithPurpose" button. Anyone who wants to ship a care package to a loved one can do so by selecting "Shipped." Those who decide to buy a care package for a health care worker must choose "#GiftsWithPurpose."

Jaege said she is first sending care packages to COVID-19 units at Walter Reed. A nurse working at the facility has volunteered to pick up the gifts at Olive & Loom and distribute them to the nurses and doctors at all four units.

Jaege says Olive & Loom has sold 28 packages as of Wednesday afternoon.

"The (first) goal is to have enough packages for one unit. But we'd like to make sure that all units treating the patients have something small," Jaege said, noting that each unit has about 20 nurses.

"If by next week I could fulfill all Walter Reed packages at all four units, then I could move onto (MedStar Georgetown University Hospital) and Holy Cross Hospital," she said. "That would be my dream."

If Olive & Loom has extra care packages, Jaege says she wants to help other essential workers outside hospitals, like grocery store employees.

"It doesn't stop at a hospital. We would get creative ... and move to some other sector and let those people know that we appreciate them," she said.

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