Joining hands to help Flint

Last week, I traveled with Walmart's EVP for Corporate Affairs Dan Bartlett to Flint, Michigan, to announce support for the Flint community as it struggles with contaminated water and damaged infrastructure. Walmart, Coca-Cola, Nestlé and PepsiCo have agreed to donate water to meet the daily needs of more than 10,000 school children in the Flint Community and Genesee Intermediary School Districts for the balance of the calendar year. The donation translates to 176 truckloads, or up to 6.5 million bottles of water, delivered to children in schools and other places where they gather after school and in the summer.

The situation in Flint is dire, and it really hit home for me as a parent and as a Walmart associate. We have many Walmart and Sam's Club associates and customers in the Flint community, and we wanted to do what we could to help. Although we had already been donating water and filters for many months, we wanted to do more to meet local needs.

After discussions with local public officials and community leaders, we reached out to our friends at Coca-Cola, Nestlé, and PepsiCo with the idea of combining our resources -- our water, our logistics capabilities, our people who live and work in Flint -- to provide water to children. Local leaders were supportive and appreciative of this direction, and our support this year will give them some breathing room to put in place longer-term solutions.

We are also encouraging individuals across the U.S. to support the Flint community using Good360.org/Flint. Good360 gathers and posts the needs of local nonprofits in the wake of a disaster such as this to make it easier for people to focus their donations where needed most. As of today, several organizations have posted needs for water, filters, etc., including Mission of Hope, Catholic Charities, Think Beyond the Chair and Dedicated Believers Ministries.

 We hope others will join us and use their unique strengths to help this wonderful community during its time of need.

Let's be there for Flint.