I decided to share this because it is very inspirational. I found an article published in Progressive Dairy that talks about how milk saved lives in Michigan.
The Flint water crisis has made life hard for the residents of Michigan. In April of 2014, there was talk of water contamination when Flint changed drinking water sources. In the past, they got their water from the Detroit system. However, they decided to change their water source to the Flint River instead.
The water was corrosive and thus, the lead from the city’s old pipes entered the drinking water. It was only in a press conference in September 24, 2015, where this was disclosed as research showed elevated lead levels in the drinking water samples. By January 5, 2016, Flint was in a state of emergency.
The Flint water crisis began to make the daily headlines and caused political rifts. Luckily, the Michigan Milk Producers Association (MMPA), headed by their president, Ken Nobis stepped in to offer a quick solution to combat the problem.
On January 18, 2016, Nobis and Sheila Burkhardt, the MMPA Director of Member Services and Government Relations were in a meeting with Dr. Jeff Dwyer, the Michigan State University Extension interim director then. Dwyer talked about how calcium, iron and vitamin C play key roles in blocking lead absorption.
Both Nobis and Burkhardt came up with the idea to donate milk to the people of Flint. Within 96 hours, they had 12,000 gallons of 2 percent milk ready in a cold storage at the Eastern Michigan Food Bank. This donation would not have been possible without The Kroger Co. of Michigan for donating the processing and packaging costs of the milk and Quickway Carriers for taking care of the transportation costs.
Aside from the initial 12,000 gallons, the MMPA has donated an extra 24,000-plus gallons to the city affected by the Flint water crisis. Today, the city’s residents are still unable to trust their water supply and have been advised to use bottled water until the state can replace the water pipes.
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Rick Pascual recruits in dairy nutrition for feed companies and their suppliers across the USA. Rick joined Continental Search in January 2015 has successfully filled a number of searched for nutritionists, sales and sales management for leading companies.
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