Retail Works To Aid Harvey Victims

When the going gets tough, America’s retailers and restaurants get going.

Food companies nationwide have poured out assistance to those affected by Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey, feeding emergency workers, donating meals and working overtime to get grocery stores and restaurants open again in the greater Houston area and Southeast Texas.

And progress — slow though it may be — is happening. According to The Wall Street Journal, McDonald’s has managed to re-open the 130 area locations that had been closed by the storm. Those had all re-opened as of yesterday, and were busily serving up food to customers and free bottles of water and meals to rescue workers. Fellow quick-service restaurant (QSR) Chipotle has pledged to deliver more than 50,000 pounds of food to relief organizations, including chicken, tortillas, lettuce, tomatoes, beans, steak and bottled water.

Grocer Kroger Co. is offering up the essentials — like water and toiletries — to rescue organizations and has sent a mobile pharmacy to help refill prescriptions, provide immunizations and perform health screenings, the WSJ reported. Packaged food companies such as General Mills and Mondelez are shipping thousands of cases of food items with long shelf lives that and required no cooking.

Specifically within the shipments, General Mills will send more than $500,000 worth of foods including Epic jerky and Nature Valley granola bars. Mondelez has donated several thousand cases of Wheat Thins, Honey Maid graham crackers and other snacks. Similarly, Campbell’s is sending four truckloads of soup, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers, V8 juices and several trucks of Plum Organics baby food. Kraft Heinz also sent Planters nuts and Capri Sun drinks, and Hershey Co. sent Krave beef jerky, according to the WSJ.

“It’s much too early to know what the impact may be, as rescue and recovery efforts are still ongoing,” a Mondelez spokesman said.