Volunteers at Second Harvest packed hundreds of disaster relief kits Tuesday ahead of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, which begins June 1.
Second Harvest’s Greg Higgerson said each pack contains nutrition for up to three days in the form of Ensure, Pedialyte and PediaSure products which don’t need to be refrigerated, enough for 500 couples and 500 families of four.
“We put these boxes together, and they would go out, not only to shelters to have on hand, but also to our partner feeding programs that are serving people affected by the disaster,” said Higgerson.
Higgerson explained these kits are great for people with special medical needs, like infants and seniors who need a quick way to rehydrate or get sugar.
“Things like Ensure and Pedialyte really make a difference when you've got, for example, infants or an older person who can't can't take the normal kinds of food necessarily, but they need some energy, and they need some nutrition,” said Higgerson.
He said the kits will be deployed in the event of a major storm.
Watch Second Harvest's Greg Higgerson discuss hurricane preps at the nonprofit:
Similar kits were deployed to the hardest hit areas of Florida after Hurricane Helene.
The packs were made possible by a partnership, now in its eighth year, between Second Harvest’s parent nonprofit Feeding America and company Abbott.
The partnership began in 2005 shortly after disaster kits were badly needed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
By the end of the year, the partnership will have distributed 1 million disaster kits to people recovering from all types of natural disasters throughout the U.S., including hurricanes and tornadoes.
Second Harvest is also preparing to respond with food after a hurricane. Find your nearest food bank here. Find out how to volunteer to pack food and other necessities here.
