For more than 20 years, Abbott has partnered with Feeding America to help prepare southern Gulf Coast communities for the annual hurricane season. Abbott Disaster Relief Packs stocked with Ensure, PediaSure and Pedialyte are assembled by Abbott volunteers, and prepositioned at local food banks for rapid distribution to families when disaster occurs.

Now, Abbott and Feeding America are taking lessons from hurricanes in the South and heading West.

With rising temperatures and prolonged droughts making wildfire seasons in the United States more severe, Abbott is expanding our disaster preparedness efforts to California. Recovery efforts and response is critical to disaster recovery, but recent wildfires and past emergencies demonstrate that resilience starts with preparedness and having response resources in place before disaster strikes.

Proactive preparation in action

This partnership has delivered and prepositioned nutrition supplies in at-risk areas, helping communities to prepare in advance to meet immediate needs following an emergency.

This year, Abbott employees brought this program to two food banks in California to build 2,000 disaster relief kits in the Bay Area and in Los Angeles and help approximately 6,000 people and families for the first 72 hours after a disaster strikes.

These packs are designed to bridge the critical gap between the moment a crisis hits and the arrival of additional aid, ensuring communities have what they need to weather the first three days of an emergency event.

Partnerships for Resilience

Abbott doesn’t do this work alone – we’re proud to work alongside Feeding America and local California food banks –Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano in Concord, CA and Los Angeles Regional Food Bank in LA – to get these resources where they are needed most.

"At Abbott, we know that good health is the foundation of everything – and that foundation is put at extreme risk during a natural disaster," says Kathryn McKenzie, Divisional Vice President of Global Citizenship and Sustainability at Abbott. "By expanding our efforts in California and working with incredible partners like Feeding America, we’re not just sending help after the damage is done, we’re putting vital resources in place to help immediately when needed."