Coca-Cola Europacific Partners New Zealand Cyclone Relief Efforts Reach Hard Hit Kiwis

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners New Zealand (CCEP NZ) has supported in the Cyclone Gabrielle relief effort by donating $70,000 to the Cyclone Gabrielle Community Support Givealittle campaign, contributing to the second-largest campaign in Givealittle’s history. Additionally, CCEP NZ donated more than 50 pallets of water to the hard-hit regions which equates to 25,800 bottles of 1.5L Kiwi Blue water.

As well as providing financial relief, CCEP NZ’s local employees rolled up their sleeves to provide on-the-ground support. One such employee was local resident and Sales Manager of Hawkes Bay and Gisborne, Sarah Crasborn, who went above and beyond in leading CCEP NZ’s local relief efforts after Cyclone Gabrielle devastated much of the east coast. Crasborn created and organised a free mini supermarket of essential items, distributed water to the community and drove from Wellington to Hawkes Bay to bring fuel and food to those without.

Crasborn has worked at CCEP NZ for seven years and considers her team as her family. In fact, her mother, father, and brother all work for CCEP New Zealand, with her father having worked in distribution for the last 35 years.

“I felt responsible for my team at CCEP NZ and our community and wanted to make sure they were safe. I knew a lot of them would be scared and wanted to do everything I could to ease the pressure,” said Crasborn.

To further her efforts, Crasborn along with the CCEP head office organised for essential items such as food, nappies, and fuel to be readily available to her team, as well as community led donations to the civil defence.

“After the cyclone, there was no power, roads were closed, and people were running out of fuel as they were checking in on their loved ones. There was a huge fear that people would run out of fuel and then need to evacuate again but not be able to” Crasborn adds.

Crasborn focused on the resources she had access to through CCEP NZ and her family. Because most of the community did not have access to safe water, in addition to the water donated to Civil Defence, Crasborn worked with CCEP NZ’s head office to secure additional pallets of water to be delivered and distributed in the Hawkes Bay region. She and other CCEP NZ volunteers spent their weekend handing out water to civil defence and members of the community who were involved in clean-up efforts and those who were unable to access safe drinking water.

Internally, CCEP NZ also offered flexible work arrangements to support staff that were affected and created internal opportunities for staff to donate to charities that were providing on-the-ground support to hard hit communities. The employee donations were just shy of $10,000 and were donated to Auckland City Mission and the NZ Red Cross.