Southern Tray making masks

Southern Tray usually makes packages and food trays.

But now they have switched to making face shields for healthcare workers.

Companies are stepping up to help with the fight against covid-19.

One local production company is doing their part in helping the medical community with a product that's in high demand.

News 12's joeli poole toured the plant and spoke with the team making this happen.

Pkg normally, at this time of the year, paperboard packaging company, southern champion tray ,would be gearing up for baseball season making food trays and boxes.

But due to covid-19, they have decided to do their part in helping support workers on the front lines combatting this pandemic.

Joeli poole "the structural designers at southern champion tray asked themselves what is something the facility could build right now and mass produce quickly.

That's when they came up with the face shield to help out our local health care workers."

David chapman/ structural designer for sct " i researched a lot with local nurses and doctors because i wanted to make sure that i got their input.

We can make anything here but we have to make sure it's useful to them."

The shields are made out of sps paper board and have window film to allow healthcare workers a wide viewing range.

The company has produced 5,000 face shields that are going out thursday to nearby medical facilities, including chattanooga's three main hospitals.

Ben walter/ business development manager "hopefully, when we get these 5,000 dispersed we can get a lot of feedback from the medical community.

If it works great as is, our next run will be for 200,000 plus.

If it doesn't work as well, we will make a few tweaks and still try to run a much much larger run to be available for next week."

Southern champion tray says they felt like producing these shields was something they had to do to help those fighting the virus.

Chapman "when you realize that helping these people, they could be the ones helping our loved ones or helping us, should we get sick.

It brings a sense of urgency to making something happen."

The company says if you are in need of shields for your medical facility they are willing to help.

For more information about how to get in touch with southern champion tray and request shields, go to wdef dot com.

In chattanooga, joeli poole, news 12 now.

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