More than five million bottles of water will be arriving this weekend and early next week in New York and New Jersey communities hard hit by Hurricane Sandy. Approximately 100 trucks will be converging on the region from Nestle Waters North America (NWNA) plants in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Texas and Maine, where employees are working tirelessly to meet the acute needs of storm victims. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the New York Office of Emergency Management made the request for bottled water to meet immediate need in the region.
Nestle Waters North America is also donating 200,000 bottles of Poland Spring® water that had been designated for the NYC Marathon. With that event now cancelled, all of that bottled water is being turned over to relief agencies. This brings total bottled water donations by NWNA to more than 775,000 bottles, most of which have by distributed through disaster relief partners AmeriCares and The American Red Cross.
For example, the Red Cross is using bottles of Nestle® Pure Life® purified water sent to its Somerset, New Jersey warehouse to provide assistance to people in shelters and communities in that region facing disruptions in municipal water supplies. AmeriCares has received donations of Deer Park® water to be distributed to The Salvation Army for Nassau County on Long Island, and Nestle® Pure Life® to help residents of New York City housing projects.
"The bottled water industry plays a critical role at times like this to provide large quantities of clean, safe water that can be transported and stored safely," says Heidi Paul, vice president corporate affairs for Nestle Waters North America, in a prepared statement. "We are proud of the efforts and commitment of our employees across the country who work around the clock to get water to people in need."
The 5.4 million additional bottles requested by FEMA will be arriving between Sunday and Tuesday, and will be staged from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, as well as from Lakehurst, New Jersey.
Nestle Waters North America has donated more than half a million bottles of water to its emergency relief partners, AmeriCares and The American Red Cross, serving communities affected by Hurricane Sandy in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Vermont. Additional donations are expected in the coming days.
Nestle Waters teams are currently working at full production to meet the needs of relief organizations, retailers and communities. In preparation for the storm, Nestle Waters ramped up production at six bottling facilities in Maine, Pennsylvania and northern Florida. These facilities help ensure that high-quality bottled water is available as a vital backup when municipal water supplies are affected.
"Bottled water is a critical second source of drinking water, and never is that more clear than when access to public water is disrupted," said Heidi Paul, vice president corporate affairs for Nestle Waters North America, in a prepared statement. "Our partnership with American Red Cross and AmeriCares helps emergency relief workers quickly get bottled water where it needs to go. We will continue to support their relief efforts until our friends and neighbors are back on their feet."
So far, 12 truckloads of Nestle® Pure Life® purified water and Deer Park® spring water have been delivered to Red Cross warehouses in Middletown and Somerset, NJ for immediate distribution to Jersey Shore towns most in need of clean drinking water. Through AmeriCares, Nestle® Pure Life® purified water and Deer Park® spring water have been distributed to The Salvation Army for Nassau County, the Food Bank for New York City, and Vermont Food Banks to help residents affected by the storm.
For nearly three decades, Nestle Waters has worked with AmeriCares and The American Red Cross to help communities across the country in need, including those affected by major flooding, wildfires and tornados.
Those interested in supporting relief efforts should visit: http://www.americares.org/ or http://www.redcross.org/.
