American Nitrile teams up with CABVI for distribution of PPE

American Nitrile, a small business dedicated to manufacturing the medical and nonmedical gloves for healthcare use, has announced a partnership with The Central Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CABVI) for distribution of domestically produced nitrile gloves to address the national need for personal protective equipment (PPE) and shortened supply chains.

The gloves are approved by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through an AbilityOne contract to employ people who are blind or have significant disabilities and to comply with the Make PPE in America Act, requiring procurement contracts for PPE to be long-term and for domestically manufactured PPE.

“We are proud to announce our partnership with the entire CABVI team. They have been a steadfast supplier to our Federal Government, specifically the TSA and airports across the country, for several decades,” said American Nitrile founder and CEO Jacob Block. “We are thrilled to be a part of lessening our country’s reliance on Asia and returning this supply chain to its original birthplace, America’s heartland.”

American Nitrile built a US manufacturing facility dedicated to producing nitrile gloves in Grove City, OH. The 530,000 square foot facility, housing 12 productions lines, will be capable of producing 3.6 billion gloves when fully scaled in 2024. Additionally, the facility includes an onsite wastewater treatment and recycling plant capable of recycling 150 million gallons of wastewater each year.

CABVI will package and distribute gloves it purchases from American Nitrile at its facilities in Utica and Syracuse, NY. 

“We have an exceptional partner in American Nitrile. They make a high-quality product that has passed rigorous testing at the DHS for security screenings by TSA. CABVI distributes the gloves to more than 400 US airports through the AbilityOne programme,” said Edward P. Welsh, president & CEO of CABVI. “American Nitrile affirms CABVI’s mission to support federal agencies while expanding employment opportunities for people who are blind.”

As a social enterprise, CABVI has both societal and business goals, providing vision rehabilitation services to nearly 2,000 individuals with vision loss in a 10-county region of Central New York, while employing over 100 people who are legally blind or visually impaired.

“While manufacturing the highest quality nitrile gloves in the world is our stated mission, we are equally motivated to employ people who are blind in our factory,” Block added. “People who are blind and eager to return to the workforce have friends in American Nitrile, CABVI, and National Industries for the Blind (NIB).  We will find a way to make it happen.”

NIB and its network of associated nonprofit agencies like CABVI are employers of people who are blind through the manufacture and provision of products and services of the AbilityOne Program. NIB president and CEO Kevin Lynch praised American Nitrile and CABVI for joining forces to address acute national needs to produce and distribute PPE and exploring new employment opportunities for people who are blind in Central Ohio and Central New York.