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The Mayo Clinic on Thursday delivered its first shipment of donated water to Channel One Food Bank in Rochester.
The shipment, as well as others to follow, are part of Mayo’s pledge to donate 173 pallets of bottled water to Channel One and other food banks in the Midwest. That’s more than 321,000 bottles of water.
"It’s incredibly generous," Channel One Development and Communication Director Linda Olson said. "We’re really grateful, because this is going to help six food banks in Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota."
According to Channel One Operations Director Ed Stites, summer tends to be the season when natural disasters are most common. The water donated by Mayo Clinic will be used for any relief efforts that might be needed.
Stites added that if any of the participating food banks finds itself with a surplus of water, there’s a possibility the extra bottles could potentially be distributed nationwide to any other areas that need it.
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"It’s hard to say," Sitites said. "But we’ll use as much as we can."
Mayo Clinic purchased all of the water from local wholesale distributors, such as Wal-Mart, HyVee, Costco and others, and even received donation offers from local businesses looking to help.
Shipments will continue to be delivered to Channel One over the course of the next few weeks.
