Molson Coors Beverage Company today said it is donating 200,000 cans of fresh drinking water to the American Red Cross to aid relief efforts in Louisiana and Texas communities hardest hit by Hurricane Laura.
The company is shipping four truckloads of 12-ounce cans of water from its brewery in Elkton, Va., to locations identified as most in need by the Red Cross.
“In times of distress and crisis, Molson Coors believes that access to safe drinking water is critical,” said Michael Nordman, senior manager of community affairs for Molson Coors. “We are mobilizing quickly to ensure that water is available to first responders and residents as they deal with the aftermath of this terrible storm.”
The storm made landfall early Thursday near Cameron, La., as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 150 m.p.h., delivering significant flooding and catastrophic damage to buildings, vehicles and critical infrastructure such as roads, bridges and utilities. Hundreds of thousands were without power as of Thursday morning, the New York Times reported. At least one person – a 14-year-old girl – was killed when a tree fell on her house, the newspaper reported.
Molson Coors’ water donation program is part of an initiative launched in 2017 with Broomfield, Colo.-based canmaker Ball Corporation. The two companies together have committed to providing more than 2 million cans of water to the Red Cross and other organizations to help communities in crisis.
The water is canned at the Molson Coors brewery in Trenton, Ohio, and stored at its brewery in Virgina’s Shenandoah Valley. The 12-pack cartons are donated by Graphic Packaging International.
The company earlier this year also donated 154,000 cans of water to North American truck drivers in an effort to help keep them safe by limiting the amount of stops they need to make for supplies during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as 50,000 cans of water to the Salvation Army Intermountain Division in Denver to assist with the organization’s coronavirus relief efforts.