The PepsiCo Foundation announced its commitment to contribute $500,000 to disaster relief in Pakistan in response to recent flash and river flooding.
In support of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), the PepsiCo Foundation’s disaster relief partner, $250,000 will be directed immediately to the WFP’s emergency and special operations already in place in Pakistan. The funds will help provide humanitarian aid, including supplies and food assistance, to some of the estimated six million Pakistanis whose homes and livelihoods have been impacted by the heavy monsoon rains. The PepsiCo Foundation will work together with PepsiCo’s local business unit in Pakistan to identify an appropriate beneficiary for the balance of the funding, which will be used for rebuilding and recovery.
“PepsiCo is committed to helping the people of Pakistan persevere through this extraordinary ordeal,” said Saad Abdul-Latif, CEO of PepsiCo Asia, Middle East and Africa. “Our friends and partners at the World Food Program will ensure that our contribution will help immediately where it is needed most, while additional relief aid from the PepsiCo Foundation as well as donations from PepsiCo employees around the world will be put to the best possible use by our team on the ground in Pakistan.”
This pledge adds to the PepsiCo Foundation’s history of giving across the globe through grant making, associate programs and disaster response aid. In 2010, PepsiCo donated $1 million and supplied bottled water, Gatorade and Quaker products to support victims of the Haiti earthquake and granted $250,000 to the nonprofit organization Un Techo Para Mi Pais to support Chilean earthquake recovery.
Because WFP was already on the ground providing assistance to millions of Pakistan’s poorest people, the organization has been able to respond to the disaster quickly and effectively. Despite the bad weather, the WFP has provided a one-month supply of food to nearly 340,000 people in severely affected areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and other distressed communities.
