UPS will support the relief efforts of the American Red Cross with its newly-created LogisticsAction Teams (LAT) to help victims of the recent tornadoes in south-eastern USA.
In addition, UPS will donate a further $100,000 to its original $500,000 commitment to theAmerican Red Cross. The company also contributed $50,000 to the Metropolitan Atlanta Chapter of theRed Cross to the emergency relief for tornado victims.
LATs were established in January to leverage UPS’s transportation network, logistics expertiseand far-reaching employee volunteer base for the benefit of the Red Cross during natural disastersand emergencies. The LAT approach was modelled after the World Food Programme’s Logistics EmergencyTeams, which deploy logistics experts from private companies like UPS in times of crisis.
This is the first deployment of a UPS LAT team, one of four created so far, and assigned to theMetropolitan Atlanta Chapter. In addition to Atlanta, UPS has trained LAT teams to work with theRed Cross in San Francisco, Houston and Louisiana.
Nancy Brockway, Chief Emergency Services Officer for Metro Atlanta Chapter of the American RedCross, said: “The UPS Logistics Action Team has been invaluable to our tornado relief operation.Their expertise has helped us be more efficient in transporting meals and supplies to the familieswho so desperately need them.”
Relief efforts in Georgia include projects such as bulk distribution of clean-up supplies to thehardest hit areas, pick-up and delivery of hot meals to fixed feeding sites and transportation ofdocuments, equipment and supplies from warehouses to service delivery sites. In addition, dailypick-up and delivery routes are operated between Red Cross warehouses and affected areas.
The Red Cross partnership and recent activities in the south-east of the United States areextensions of The UPS Foundation’s innovative use of logistics experts for humanitarian reliefaround the globe.
Other recent UPS humanitarian relief activities include grants to the Red Cross of Columbia(Cruz Roja Colombiana) after extensive floods and mudslides; shipments of relief supplies torefugees in Tunisia and Liberia for CARE and the UNHCR, respectively, and continued shipping ofgoods for Japan relief efforts.
