Anheuser-Busch cans water for Harvey victims in Cartersville

CARTERSVILLE, Ga. - Anheuser-Busch beer procuring stopped Monday to make a million cans of water for Hurricane Harvey victims.

The U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta joined CEO João Castro Neves to celebrate the additional water run.

It takes a lot of work to get the gears turned from beer to water. But, it's something they do a few times a year to help donate to the American Red Cross. Because of the huge need in Houston, Monday they added an additional 1 million cans to their pledge. And the expedited the process to happen in just one week.

"Normally we communicate internally that we need 2 weeks or more that we need to make it all happen from getting the cans actually made and printed to having water analysis to make sure we actually have water ready to go to be treated," said Senior Brew Master Sarah Schilling. "And then the cleaning processes and the conversion on the can line it takes some coordination to make that happen."

And there's a lot of work that goes into cleaning out and starting over. Speaking of work, much of the people here would have had Labor Day off. Secretary Acosta made a special visit to the Georgia plant to thank these people for their extra efforts.

"The people here today were happy, they were like we're happy our company is giving us the opportunity to help the people of Texas," said Secretary Acosta. "And that's what we are about here in America, Americans helping Americans."

Because Anheuser-Busch has a brewery in Houston, this hurricane hit extra close to home for a lot of employees.

"We've been in contact through text messages and calls and they're very thankful for the Cartersville Brewery and the people here what they've been able to do to help them out," said Schilling.

The company already sent 11 trucks full of 560,000 cans of drinking water and cleaning supplies so Texas and Louisiana in the past week.

"It's nothing to be here working on Labor Day compared to what folks who are impacted are dealing with," said Schilling.

Cartersville is the only location for the company that can make the canned water. Officials tell us employees are very proud to get to contribute in this way.