Katie

Unless you are from Texas or have driven through Texas, the letters H-E- B mean little to you. However, to those of us who call Texas home, H-E-B is just as common as barbeque, mesquite trees and bluebonnets. More than just a grocery chain, H-E-B has been serving Texans for 100 years, providing fresh food, quality products and convenient services. The chain is also known for its generosity and quick response in crisis situations. Recently, with Hurricane Katrina, and then again with Hurricane Rita, H-E-B rushed truckloads of food and emergency supplies to communities in need.
Knowing H-E-B’s rich history of bigheartedness, it came as little surprise that 38 of the 66 H-E-B grocery stores in the Houston area, forced to shut down in the initial wake of Hurricane Rita, were re-opened within 24 hours. According to the press release, issued today on PRNewswire, H-E-B was the first major grocery chain in the Greater Houston area to open, despite power outages, traffic jams and staffing shortages.
A timeline of events indicates that H-E-B responded rapidly after Hurricane Rita made landfall at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday. Within the first 12 hours, H-E-B had opened three stores in Wharton County, followed by 12 more and seven gas stations just a few hours later. At the end of the day, 38 stores were open, and by the next morning, 170 H-E-B partners, from Central Texas and San Antonio, had arrived in Houston to assist stores with restocking and clean-up. The same evening, partners were handing out free bags of ice to local residents. The Central Texas division even donated relief supplies to Hurricane Rita evacuees housed in the Austin-area.
With all the greediness going on in the world today, it would be easy to assume that H-E-B’s quick reaction was money-motivated, rather than compassion-motivated. However, I choose to believe that a prompt response reflects a true sense of Texas pride. By making sure that residents of the Greater Houston area had access to food and necessities and with the help of fellow Texans across the state, H-E-B provided comfort and a sense of security to those in need. I take pride in knowing that “when the going gets tough, the tough get going,” and H-E-B will try hard to help fellow citizens overcome their adversity.