{"id":672,"date":"2020-04-26T14:51:20","date_gmt":"2020-04-26T18:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/?post_type=resource&p=672"},"modified":"2021-03-30T16:14:33","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T20:14:33","slug":"coca-cola-relief-effort-encompasses-over-100m-in-community-support","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/resource\/coca-cola-relief-effort-encompasses-over-100m-in-community-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Coca-Cola Relief Effort Encompasses Over $100M in Community Support"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quick Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n

C<\/em>oca-Cola has made contributions to support relief efforts globally including manufacturing hand-sanitizers and redirecting a big part of marketing spend for community relief programs, medical supplies and equipment during the outbreak phase, as well as developing other actions for the recovery and back-to-normal phases in markets hit hardest by the pandemic. These contributions, added to other programs that are currently in the development phase, will take Coca-Cola\u2019s total community support beyond $100 million.<\/em><\/p>\n

Supporting Communities and First Responders<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Coca-Cola system, with production facilities and franchise bottling operations across the United States, continues to make and deliver the essential beverages local stores and communities need during this challenging time. But the company, its local bottlers, suppliers and employees are doing more than delivering drinks in the communities they call home. Local teams are finding ways to re-deploy resources to help meet the needs of first responders, healthcare workers, community organizations and more.<\/p>\n

For example, the company is redirecting some of its global advertising budget to support COVID-19 prevention and relief in markets around the world. The Philippines was the first of many markets to pause advertising for all brands and redirect media spending to help provide personal protective equipment and beverages for health workers, deliver food to vulnerable families, and support small retailers in affected communities.<\/p>\n

Supporting Foodservice Partners<\/strong><\/h3>\n

To help support the restaurant community \u2013 an industry that employs more than 15 million Americans \u2013 Coca-Cola North America is providing its more than 8,000 employees across the U.S. and Canada with a $100 delivery credit for either DoorDash, Grubhub, UberEATS or Skip The Dishes to place meal delivery orders during this challenging time. Coca-Cola North America plants also have implemented routines to order takeout meals from foodservice customers as a thank-you to associates working hard to produce Coca-Cola products. This effort adds up to an immediate injection of nearly $1 million into the restaurant industry.<\/p>\n

Coca-Cola joined forces with industry peers to support\u00a0#TheGreatAmericanTakeout initiative<\/a>, which encourages Americans to support the restaurant industry by ordering delivery or takeout meals. Coca-Cola is encouraging employees, bottling partners and industry partners to participate, and using its social channels to promote the movement. On April 14, The Great American Takeout gave away $10,000 in gift cards to people who order takeout. One grand prize recipient won free takeout for a year in the form of a $5,000 gift card, while 100 more winners will receive a $50 gift card, all courtesy of The Coca-Cola Company.\u00a0Learn more<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Coca-Cola also launched the\u00a0Coca-Cola Rapid Response Resource<\/a>\u00a0online portal to give restaurants access to free information and resources \u2013 from tips for optimizing takeout and drive-thru operations, to updated COVID-19 safety guidelines, to information on third-party delivery services and more.<\/p>\n

Together We Can: Using Social and Digital Assets for Good<\/h3>\n

Coca-Cola is taking several actions to use advertising and marketing resources to spread solidarity. On April 6, 2020, Coca-Cola used company and brand social media handles to promote a message of support and togetherness, and will use the scale of Coca-Cola brand handles to share helpful information and meaningful messages from partner community organizations like the American Red Cross, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Salvation Army and Feeding America, among others.<\/p>\n

Providing Supplies and Transportation to Help Make Masks for Healthcare Workers and Frontline Responders<\/h3>\n

In the Boston area, thousands of face shields are being assembled for delivery to medical centers around the region, with more in the works. Ray Dube, sustainability manager at\u00a0Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast<\/a>, saw an opportunity to provide much-needed logistics and supply chain support to help nonprofit makerspace\u00a0\u201cMakeIt Labs<\/a>\u201d produce face shields to protect front-line healthcare workers.<\/p>\n

Dube connected MakeIt volunteers with Coca-Cola plastic recycler UltrePet and packaging manufacturer EasyPak to donate and transport clean PET plastic sheeting to make the specialty shields. EasyPak donated approximately 6,000 pounds of clear PET sheeting, and Coke Northeast delivery trucks transported the Coke system\u2019s first large-scale donation of PET sheets.<\/p>\n

In partnership with\u00a0MakeIt Labs<\/a>\u00a0and packaging supplier\u00a0Sonoco<\/a>, Coca-Cola also helped transport 6,000 pounds of plastic sheeting from Sonoco\u2019s warehouse in North Carolina to Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Tech students and other groups will\u00a0use the plastic sheeting<\/a>\u00a0to make 50,000+ plastic surgical shields for healthcare workers in the Atlanta area.<\/p>\n

Another supplier,\u00a0Filmquest<\/a>, has generously agreed to donate 1,200 pounds of polyester film that will be assembled by MakeIt Lab volunteers into plastic surgical shields and donated to hospitals.<\/p>\n

Helping Supply Hand Sanitizer and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)<\/h3>\n

The\u00a0Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Company<\/a>\u00a0is responding to an urgent request from the\u00a0University of Iowa<\/a>\u00a0Hospitals and Clinics for hand sanitizer and for donations of personal protective equipment (PPE) by hosting a drop-off location at their offices and rewarding people who donate with free eight-packs of Coca-Cola\u2019s new AHA sparkling water. The Coke bottler is producing hand sanitizer at its Atlantic, Iowa bottling facility and\u00a0donating it\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0to the University of Iowa Hospital System.<\/p>\n

Additionally, two suppliers \u2013 Western Container and Southeastern Container \u2013 are working with Coca-Cola bottlers and alcohol distilleries to create plastic bottles that can be filled with hand sanitizer solution and donated to healthcare and public safety workers. Western Container shipped two truckloads (over 200,000 units) of 500-ml bottles to Whiskey Hollow Distillery in Valley View, Texas. These bottles will be custom labeled by the distillery as donated hand sanitizer to Texas-area hospitals.<\/p>\n

Providing Financial and In-Kind Support to Community Organizations<\/h3>\n

The Coca-Cola Foundation, the philanthropic arm of The Coca-Cola Company, is awarding $13.5 million in grants to five nonprofit organizations working on the front lines of the U.S. and Canadian humanitarian response to the coronavirus pandemic. The latest grants support organizations focused on providing relief to first responders and residents of economically disadvantaged communities, both in the company\u2019s hometown of Atlanta and across North America. Read more about the organizations receiving the grants\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":673,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","resource_category":[9],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource\/672"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/resource"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"resource_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_category?post=672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}