Milo’s Tea Company pauses tea, lemonade production to provide clean drinking water to Texas disaster relief

BESSEMER, Ala. (WHNT) — A company headquartered in Central Alabama paused production at one of its plants last week to transition to disaster relief aid.

Last week, the CEO of Milo’s Tea Company took to LinkedIn to announce the decision.

Tricia Wallwork, Milo’s CEO and granddaughter of the company’s founders, said the reason for this pause was because “our neighbors in Texas need clean drinking water more than anything else right now, and disaster relief is something we feel strongly about.”

The halt in production is at the Tulsa, Oklahoma, plant, Wallwork said.

In the post, Wallwork said, “five truckloads – 124 pallets and more than 119,000 bottles – of Milo’s bottled water [would be arriving] at the San Antonio Food Bank to support flood relief efforts in a community that’s experienced unimaginable loss. As a mother, wife and human, my prayers go out to all those impacted by the horrific flooding in Texas.”

Wallwork also said she was proud of the TEAms’ response, as it was quick and came together in just 24 hours.

The tea company also partnered with Feeding America and H-E-B, as well as R.E. Garrison Trucking, Inc., which provided the transportation of the pallets.

Milo’s is headquartered right here in Alabama, founded in 1964 in Bessemer. From the July 4 Texas flooding, several Alabamians were killed, including 8-year-old Sarah Marsh, of Mountain Brook, and Ileana Santana and Mila, a Mobile grandmother and granddaughter.

After just over two weeks since the flooding, three people are still reported missing, according to the city of Kerrville. In a July 16 update, Kerr County officials said at least 107 people, including 37 children, were killed in Kerr County.

By Saturday, Kerville officials announced the number of missing people in Kerr County dropped from more than 160 to three, the release said.

At least 135 people total were killed in the catastrophic flash flooding across Texas, with the majority of the deaths confirmed in Kerr County.