What do you need? (If you are impacted by the virus)

Can Apple be approached to supply cheaper iPads for a good cause?

Maybe.

But this would be a donation as the budget is significantly below cost of production so no discount reaches this price point.

The problem with going to Apple for donations is that like most large companies they're not geared up for validating and fulfilling this. So you'd need to be a registered charity, have proof, and then make a case... as these things take time and Apple will only have a few people in the UK doing admin for this within their corporate responsibility dept (or equivalent)... Apple will optimise the donations they do to being the large and meaningful. Asking for a handful of iPads isn't going to be on their radar, and will distract them from achieving more elsewhere.

It's almost the same as "I'm running a school tombola, hey Apple will you spare an iPad?"... the effort to remove fraud, stem losses, and make real impact is all misaligned, so large companies just don't do it.