This year’s hurricane season has brought some significant, unexpected impacts — including previously unseen devastation to the mountain regions of North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee by Hurricane Helene, and back-to-back major hurricanes hitting the west coast of Florida with Helene and now Hurricane Milton.

To help affected families and communities, Abbott and Abbott Fund are working with our longstanding disaster relief partner organizations, including Feeding America, Direct Relief, Americares and World Central Kitchen, to deliver aid where it’s needed most — reaching communities in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

Advance Prep Provides a ‘First Wave’ of Aid

This work started well before hurricane season, through our longstanding partnerships with Feeding America and Direct Relief to help communities prepare in advance. Together with Feeding America and with support from Abbott volunteers, we provide food banks with “disaster relief packs” stocked with our donated nutrition products. Similar relief packs stocked with medical products are provided by Direct Relief to health clinics in areas at high risk of hurricanes.

We also provided grants to help food banks and health clinics purchase generators and supplies to strengthen their capabilities and resiliency. Direct Relief recently shared perspective on how partnerships like this are helping health clinics to better respond to extreme weather events.

When Hurricane Helene hit, food banks and health clinics were able to quickly distribute a “first wave” of relief to affected communities, providing the targeted nutrition and healthcare products people need.

Additional Donations Help Meet Significant Needs

Building on these proactive programs, we’ve made additional donations to help meet needs on the ground due to widespread devastation from Hurricane Helene. This includes Ensure, PediaSure, and Glucerna nutrition drinks, Pedialyte rehydration solutions, Similac infant formula and diabetes care products.

Now, we’re providing expanded support for relief efforts in Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton. This includes grants from Abbott Fund to help organizations on the ground to meet basic needs for food, water, hygiene, first aid and medical care, and additional donations of nutrition products, including Similac infant formula.

We’ll continue to closely monitor, assess and respond to ongoing needs, working across our businesses and with our relief organization partners in the days and weeks ahead.

How You Can Help

To help communities affected by hurricanes in the Southeast U.S., here are links to key organizations and additional information:

• Americares
• Direct Relief
• Feeding America
• World Central Kitchen