Aidmatrix congratulates UPS on their recent leadership initiative in Disaster Response

Aidmatrix partners are making a difference to help save lives:

ATLANTA, Jan. 11, 2011 – UPS (NYSE:UPS) today announced a charitable initiative to create Logistics Emergency Teams (LETs) for American Red Cross chapters in Atlanta, Houston, New Orleans and the San Francisco Bay area, expanding the reach of the company’s urgent humanitarian relief program. Through this effort, UPS will provide logistics expertise, transportation and warehousing to local Red Cross Disaster Services Coordinators in the event of a large-scale emergency.

To support planning for disaster response and post-crisis recovery efforts, assigned UPS LETs coordinators will work with each Red Cross chapter on needed logistics by providing skilled volunteers, transport of supplies to affected areas and allocating space for storage.

“The LETs initiative leverages the capacity and resources of UPS’s U.S. network to support the Red Cross with our mutual goal of providing more effective and efficient relief for devastated communities,” said Myron Gray, UPS senior vice president of U.S. operations. “The LETs program with the American Red Cross in the U.S. is another component in UPS’s continued commitment to leveraging its people, logistics expertise and global network to provide urgent humanitarian relief all around the world.”

In collaboration with global humanitarian relief partners, UPS has provided dollars, expertise and people in recent emergencies including the tsunami in Southeast Asia, Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake in Haiti and the Chilean mine disaster. For three decades, UPS has partnered with the American Red Cross to improve the safety and well-being of local communities through financial, logistical and volunteer support. UPS is a proud member of the American Red Cross Annual Disaster Giving Program.

“The time to plan and prepare for a disaster is not when a disaster strikes,” says Michael Brown, vice president at the American Red Cross. “Research shows that when the proper humanitarian relief processes and systems are in place ahead of a devastating event, lives are saved. We have seen the benefits of partnering with UPS’s proven global logistical capabilities in a number of urgent humanitarian situations and we are eager to expand this relationship.”

Did you receive holiday gift cards you don’t want or need - ? Donate them to Aidmatrix for a tax receipt

Aidmatrix can turn your unwanted gift cards into funds to support our humanitarian relief work around the world. Simply drop your gift card along with your name, mailing address and email address to:

Attn: Development
Aidmatrix Foundation
P.O. Box 631086
Irving, TX 75063-1086

We’ll verify the balance on your gift card and follow up with an email receipt of your donation amount. It’s that easy! Thank you for turning your unwanted gift cards into a life saving opportunity for someone in need.

Water Purification Project in Haiti

On January 4, 2011, Airlink, through Aerobridge, arranged for One World Environment, a water development NGO, to transport two water purification systems to Haiti. The equipment will be installed in two schools, providing safe drinking water to hundreds of children. One World Environment has been installing water purification systems in Haitian schools to protect the children from Cholera and other water-borne diseases. For more information contact Dr. Jahan Tavangar of One World Environment at jtavangar@gmail.com.

FareShare, 2010 Winner of Britain’s Most Admired Charities, Takes a Giant Step Forward in the Fight Against Food Poverty and Waste

“Inspiring” is how the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, described the UK charity FareShare when he opened their newest food depot in time for Christmas. This is the 15th FareShare Community Food Network depot. The problem of food waste is a serious one for the City of London and 40% of approximately 1.4 million tons of food waste is dumped in landfill sites at significant cost to the City, both environmental as well as financial.


The new Park Royal Depot is located in North West London and was made possible by a £362, 000 grant from the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWaRB). This one depot is expected to distribute over 300 tons of surplus food per year to over 30 charities in the first year alone. Across the UK the FareShare project provides food for approximately 6.7 million meals a year and supports on average 29,000 people every day. An additional 6,000 individuals in London will be helped thanks to this new food warehouse.

Lindsay Boswell, CEO of FareShare, said, “Food poverty is a big issue in the UK today. We are delighted to launch this depot which will ensure that food is diverted away from the waste stream while providing nutritious meals to vulnerable people in and around London.“

Additionally, FareShare provides training, jobs, and volunteer opportunities. The FareShare food redistribution program has helped London businesses reduce carbon emissions and is creating lasting economic benefits.


FareShare promotes the message that ‘No Good Food Should be Wasted’ and helps companies, as part of their corporate social responsibility efforts, to ensure that edible food is redistributed, to make a genuine impact on quality of life in the City of London and to provide opportunities for individuals to get involved in community efforts which help the most vulnerable in society: children, the ill, the homeless, the elderly, in rehabilitation projects, refuges, shelters and community centers.

FareShare’s food depots are upgrading all their depots to use the Aidmatrix Network™ Online Warehouse Plus+ Supply Chain Solution to manage their inventory. By the end of January five depots will be live on the software.

President and CEO Gov. Scott McCallum Speaks on Community Resilience at IAEM Asia

Governor Scott McCallum, during his visit to Singapore, spoke on community resilience at the 2010 Asia-Oceania Resilience Conference held by IAEM (International Association of Emergency Managers) Asia, which brought together for the first time in Asia professionals from 29 countries to participate in discussion about products and services that support all aspects of corporate and community resilience.



See more photos from the conference
Read about the IAEM