Anheuser-Busch is helping Hurricane Florence disaster victims by suspending their beer production and canning water instead.
“For the last 30 years, we have been working with the American Red Cross and our wholesaler partners to provide clean, safe drinking water for communities hit by natural disasters,” said Michel Doukeris, CEO of Anheuser-Busch. “Earlier this year, we recognized the employees who help make the program possible in Budweiser’s Super Bowl commercial and made a new commitment to expand our capacity to produce safe, clean drinking water for disaster relief at our Fort Collins Brewery. Today, we are pleased to deliver on that promise, doubling our production capacity to help our fellow Americans in times of need.”
Anheuser-Busch sent six truckloads – more than 300,000 cans – of emergency canned drinking water to local communities in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia as the states deal with the impacts of Florence. That effort was doubled by the work done at the Fort Collins, CO brewery.
The water will be transported from Anheuser-Busch’s brewery in Cartersville, Georgia, which periodically pauses beer production to can drinking water so as to be ready to help communities in times of disaster.
Anheuser-Busch stopped beer production in 2016 to make and ship canned water to Hurricane Matthew victims. Kevin Farenkrog, General Manager from the plant, told local media that they got an urgent call from the American Red Cross asking for water and they immediately went to work. In just a day, they produced 800,000 cans of water that were sent to coastal areas hit by the storm. 450,000 of those cans were shipped to storm shelters and victims in the path of Hurricane Matthew’s devastation in Florida. Areas getting the canned water include Deerfield Beach, West Palm Beach, Fort Pierce, Orlando, Melbourne and Daytona Beach.
“We are humbled to be able to help out our neighbors in urgent times like this,” said Craig Tomeo, Senior General Manager of Anheuser-Busch’s Jacksonville Brewery. “Putting our production and logistics strengths to work by providing safe, clean drinking water is the best way we can help right now.”
“Throughout the year, we periodically pause beer production at our Cartersville, Georgia brewery to produce emergency canned drinking water so we are ready to help out communities across the country in times of crisis,” Cartersville Brewmaster Sarah Schilling said in a written statement. “Putting our production and logistics strengths to work by providing safe, clean drinking water is the best way we can help in these situations.”
Anheuser-Busch has a longstanding tradition of providing emergency drinking water and supplies for disaster relief efforts in partnership with the American Red Cross. Since 1988, Anheuser-Busch has provided more than 79 million cans of emergency water to disaster-stricken areas. In 2017, the brewer provided almost three million cans of emergency drinking water to communities impacted by natural disasters, including in Texas, Florida, Georgia and California.
