Celebrate Humanitarian Efforts: Submit Your Nomination

The supply chain community is full of great stories of organizations and individuals that have taken the skills they have honed getting products to market on time and in full and using them to support humanitarian relief efforts. Since 2017, the nonprofit organization the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN) has been honoring just some of these individuals and organizations through its Humanitarian Logistics Awards.

For example, when Hurricane Idalia hit Florida’s Big Bend in 2023, a small group of employees and retirees from the Midwest supermarket chain Hy-Vee sprang into action to support relief efforts in the region. Hy-Vee’s “disaster relief fleet” transported more than 181,000 bottles of drinking water; 2,800 bags of ice; 2,800 cases of snacks; and cleaning supplies to the effected region. The relief fleet also partnered with Operation BBQ Relief—a nonprofit organization of barbecue pit masters out of Kansas City, Missouri—to provide 90,000 meals to impacted residents as well as emergency management teams.

In recognition of Hy-Vee’s efforts, ALAN presented the company with its Employee Engagement Award in 2024 at the annual Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) EDGE Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Now ALAN is asking for help identifying other supply chain heroes like Hy-Vee’s disaster relief team for its ninth annual Humanitarian Logistics Awards.

“Humanitarian relief wouldn’t happen without the facilitation and support of the supply chain community,” said ALAN Executive Director Kathy Fulton. “These awards were created to shine a light on that generosity. While we at ALAN know a lot about what many organizations and individuals are doing to support disaster relief efforts, there are still many others whose life-changing work we won’t be made aware of—and able to honor—unless someone takes the time to nominate them.”Nominations (including self-nominations) can be made via ALAN’s website at https://www.alanaid.org/humanitarian-awards-nomination/ until June 30. Winners will be announced this fall at ALAN’s 20th anniversary celebration during the this year’s CSCMP EDGE Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.

ALAN’s Humanitarian Logistics Awards are open to any supply chain professional, academic, organization, or department. They are awarded in four key categories, each of which can have multiple honorees:

• Outstanding Contribution To Disaster Relief, which recognizes businesses or individuals for their financial or in-kind supply chain services donations to crises or humanitarian initiatives.
• Employee Engagement, which recognizes businesses for their employee volunteer activities around a crisis or humanitarian initiative.
• Research/Academic Achievement, which recognizes business or individual contributions to the body of knowledge supporting humanitarian supply chains.
• Lifetime Achievement, whichrecognizes an individual whose work or philanthropic interests have made a substantial positive impact to crisis or humanitarian supply chain activities.