When Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in September, Genaro Rodriguez knew he wanted to help. People on the island were in desperate need of supplies. As the General Manager of La Rosa Del Monte, a worldwide moving company that has locations throughout the United States, he also had the ability to do actually do something about it.
La Rosa Del Monte had a shipping container available at its warehouse in Miami that could be delivered to Puerto Rico in less than a week. The problem, however, was that the container was empty. Rodriguez needed to find someone who was willing to donate tens of thousands of lbs. of food and water.
As fate would have it, both Rodriguez and our Executive Director, Adam Lowy, attended the International Association of Movers Conference in Long Beach, CA, which was held less than 3 weeks after the storm made landfall. As Adam was walking the floor, he saw Rodriguez, who was "all decked out in Puerto Rico gear," at La Rosa Del Monte's booth. The two had known each other for years but had never had the opportunity to work together before. After talking for a few minutes about the situation in Puerto Rico, however, they realized that this was the perfect time to collaborate.
Adam reached out to some of his connections at Feeding America to see if they'd be able to help. Sure enough, in early November, more than a dozen pallets of non-perishable food were delivered to La Rosa Del Monte's warehouse. The supplies were then loaded into the 53-foot shipping container and brought to the Port of Miami. Two days later, the container was on a ship bound for Puerto Rico. When it arrived 5 days later, it was transported to the Food Bank of Puerto Rico in Bayamon, which distributed the food/beverages to its partner agencies on the island.
The crisis in Puerto Rico is far from over. More than 700,000 people still do not have power. Tens of thousands of American citizens still do not have access to clean water. Nearly 50% of the island's population was facing hunger before the hurricane struck, a rate nearly 4 times as high as the U.S. mainland. Still, in the aftermath of such a catastrophe, when the need was the greatest, La Rosa Del Monte was able to provide some measure of relief to people in need. Thank you to Genaro, Nina, and everyone at La Rosa Del Monte for helping to make it possible.
There are people struggling with food insecurity in your community. Let’s work together and hold a food drive to help your neighbors in need.
