Britain - Katrina: UK Corporations Helping

I emailed and phoned several UK coporations over the last few days and have had some response.

Tesco says they will look into setting up collection points in their stores but it will take time. Didn't sound convincing to me.

Glaxo phoned me and said they were donating but didn't say how much but that they would announce it on their website. And they did! Glaxo are giving $1 million dollars and more in health care products. Look under news on the left of their main page.

September 1, 2005– GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) shares the nation's deep concern for residents and communities of the Gulf Coast region devastated by Hurricane Katrina. As an immediate demonstration of support, GlaxoSmithKline is donating one million dollars to the relief effort. Of those funds, $500,000 will go to the American Red Cross, $250,000 to the Mississippi Hurricane Fund and $250,000 to the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation. The company will also provide medicines and health care products in support of the disaster recovery.

Others said they are looking into donating. We'll see.

Sadly, one of the UK's largest corporations flatly refuses to give any donation - Sainsbury's.

Here is their letter:

Dear Marc,

Thank you for your e-mail.

At the moment we currently have no plans to make any donations to the Katrina disaster releif fund.
Thank you for contacting us

Kind regards,

Teresa Martin
Sainsbury's Customer Services

She even misspelled "relief". Sheesh.

Here is my reply back:

Thanks for your quick reply.

Several UK corporations, such as BP and Glaxo have donated $1 million to the greatest natural disaster to befall America. In addition, Glaxo is donating health care products.

There are many British citizens, here in the UK and in America, who are affected by this disaster.

Surely a corporation the size of Sainsbury's could donate something?

I urge you to have someone reconsider this decision.

Thank you for your attention.

I'll let you know if I get a reply.

Please help the victims of the Katrina disaster by donating to the Red Cross Katrina relief fund. Their donation page is here.

NZ Bear is keeping track of which blog people contributed through, and if you have the time please stop by there and register your donation.

Thanks.

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