Over the last four years, The Starbucks Foundation has partnered with nonprofit organizations around the world to support 250,000 women&nbsp;and girls in coffee-, tea- and cocoa-growing communities including the investment of $14 million in grants. This International Women’s Day,&nbsp;we are pleased to announce our new goal to positively impact 1 million women and girls by 2030.​

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In the Asia Pacific region,&nbsp;The Starbucks Foundation is awarding&nbsp;four new grants&nbsp;to uplift women and girls in tea- and coffee-growing communities in&nbsp;Indonesia and India.&nbsp;​

<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2022/the-starbucks-foundation-commits-to-uplift-one-million-women-and-girls-in-origin-communities-by-2030/" target="_blank">Learn more</a>&nbsp;about the organizations we are supporting in the Asia Pacific region and across the globe.&nbsp;

Photo of a woman working on a coffee farm in Indonesia

Supporting Women in Coffee, Tea &amp; Cocoa Communities ​ : Starbucks Stories Asia

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Starbucks Stories Asia

Supporting Women in Coffee, Tea &amp; Cocoa Communities ​

Supporting Women in Coffee, Tea & Cocoa Communities ​ : Starbucks Stories Asia

Over the last four years, The Starbucks Foundation has partnered with nonprofit organizations around the world to support 250,000 women&nbsp;and girls in coffee-, tea- and cocoa-growing communities including the investment of $14 million in grants. This International Women’s Day,&nbsp;we are pleased to announce our new goal to positively impact 1 million women and girls by […]

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https://stories.starbucks.com/asia/stories/2022/supporting-women-in-coffee-tea-cocoa-communities/

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Supporting Women in Coffee, Tea & Cocoa Communities ​

Today, Tata Starbucks proudly announced the Tata Starbucks Empowering Girls and Young Women program, a new initiative to support girls and young women in India through education, skills development and economic empowerment. As part of Tata Starbucks ongoing commitment to creating equal opportunities, the program will provide girls and young women with the education, financial assistance and community support they need to develop their skills and find careers.

Tata Starbucks will collaborate with non-profit organizations, Educate Girls, to improve girls’ education in rural and underprivileged areas, and VIDYA India, to provide volunteering and educational support to girls and young women who have relocated to urban cities from villages.

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In the first year of the program, Tata Starbucks will support 2,000 girls and young women across India, creating education, skills development and mentoring opportunities that will empower participants to create a better future for themselves and their communities.

Every Starbucks store across India will sponsor and support the education of a girl in primary school by covering the cost of enrolment, while improving learning outcomes and school retention rates. In addition, the company will also donate a percentage of all transactions in the new all-women stores in India to helping mobilize communities around the importance of girls’ education through the partnership with Educate Girls. The program aims to increase educational enrolment and retention within rural communities, while improving literacy and numeracy skills.

Tata Starbucks partners can also volunteer to support girls aged 4 to 18-years old who have relocated to urban cities from villages. Through the VIDYA India collaboration, partners can help to conduct training for life skills, numeracy and literacy, and volunteer as teachers’ aides to make online classes more effective and engaging. Partners are also invited to participate in parental education awareness programs, designed to advance understanding and engagement around the importance of their children’s education.

“We are delighted to announce this new initiative that provides girls and young women in India with education and tools to build a better life for themselves and for their communities,” said Navin Gurnaney, ceo, Tata Starbucks Private Limited. “Throughout India, gender disparity remains a significant barrier to education – more than 4 million girls are out of school and we are still 15% away from closing the literacy gender gap between men and women. As a leading employer in India, we have a responsibility to invest in initiatives that advance education and skills development among girls and young women. We also continue to encourage diversity and gender equality in this dynamic region. It drives sustainable growth, elevates innovation through diverse thinking and deepens understanding of communities.”

“Educate Girls is glad to collaborate with TATA Starbucks. It is the first time we are collaborating in this unique model with every Starbucks store supporting a girl’s education. Starbucks commitment to creating inclusion, diversity and equity, and our vision to empower out-of-school girls from India’s most remote and rural geographies to get back to education, is well aligned. Together we hope to strongly advocate for gender equality, equal right to education and enable our girls to become contributing members of our society,” said Safeena Husain, Founder and Executive Director of Educate Girls.

“VIDYA’s partnership with Starbucks is a momentous step towards scaling up our reach and impact, and moving closer to our vision of an India where every child receives a high-quality holistic education, every youth gets an opportunity to succeed and every woman gains economic independence and social equality. We are excited and deeply honoured to enter into a partnership with Starbucks,” said Rashmi Misra, founder-chairperson of VIDYA.

Since entering the market in 2012, Tata Starbucks has honored its commitments to diversity and inclusion in India through empowering women in new and meaningful ways. Earlier this year, it opened three stores in India operated entirely by women,&nbsp;with the number of women-led stores to double by the end of the year. In 2019, Tata Starbucks achieved 100% gender pay equity and set an ambitious target to increase its workforce female representation to 40% by the end of 2022.

As Tata Starbucks continues to grow in India, the company is deeply committed to being an active member of the community and creating positive impact in the neighborhoods it serves.&nbsp;

Tata Starbucks Launches Initiative to Transform Lives of Girls in India Through Education : Starbucks Stories Asia

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Tata Starbucks Launches Initiative to Transform Lives of Girls in India Through Education

Today, Tata Starbucks proudly announced the Tata Starbucks Empowering Girls and Young Women program, a new initiative to support girls and young women in India through education, skills development and economic empowerment. As part of Tata Starbucks ongoing commitment to creating equal opportunities, the program will provide girls and young women with the education, financial […]

https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/sites/29/2020/11/52A4934-1024x683.jpg

https://stories.starbucks.com/asia/stories/2020/tata-starbucks-empowering-girls/

Starbucks China chairman and chief executive officer, Belinda Wong, has been lauded by Fortune China as one of the market’s 25 Most Influential Businesswomen. Notably, Starbucks China Board of Directors member Ms. Isabel Ge Mahe as also named on the list.

Belinda Wong oversees Starbucks overall business in China, including driving Retail business growth through leading and strengthening the third-place (store) experience, and pioneering the next wave of digital innovations for the Digital Ventures business. In 2019, Belinda led the growth of the China market through innovation across Starbucks retail and digital offerings, including the launch of Mobile Order and Pay, the opening of the first Starbucks Now express store, and continued partnership with Alibaba. 

Starbucks China is the Company’s fastest growing and most strategic international market, where a new Starbucks store opens at an unprecedented rate of every 15 hours. Since 2011, Belinda and her leadership team have successfully redefined critical facets of the China business, including vision, growth strategy, people and brand development, and led a talented team of over 55,000 partners (employees) to increase the size and scale of business fivefold. Starbucks currently operates more than 4,100 stores in over 160 Chinese cities and is well-positioned to capture China’s enormous growth opportunities to open 6,000 stores in 230 cities by the end of its financial year 2022. 

Headshot of Starbucks China chairperson and ceo Belinda Wong

Belinda Wong among China's Most Influential Businesswomen : Starbucks Stories Asia

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Belinda Wong among China&#8217;s Most Influential Businesswomen

Starbucks China chairman and chief executive officer, Belinda Wong, has been lauded by Fortune China as one of the market’s 25 Most Influential Businesswomen.

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https://stories.starbucks.com/asia/stories/2019/belinda-wong-named-among-chinas-25-most-influential-businesswomen/

Belinda Wong among China’s Most Influential Businesswomen

Starbucks has a long history of investment in coffee, tea and cocoa producing communities to address their most critical needs, with a recognition that an investment in women and girls leads to greater impact for families and communities as a whole. On International Women’s Day 2018, The Starbucks Foundation announced a <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2018/starbucks-partners-with-malala-fund-to-invest-in-women/">new goal to empower 250,000 women and girls in origin communities by 2025</a>.

To reach that goal, The Starbucks Foundation is supporting programs around women’s leadership, access to finance, and healthy homes. These projects aim to break down barriers to education, promote clean water and sanitation (WASH), and create economic opportunities for women and girls. Since 2018, The Starbucks Foundation has made 11 grants totaling nearly $4 million to organizations working with coffee and tea communities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. These grant recipients include:

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Malala Fund | Global, 2018-2020 To support girls’ education through advocacy, amplifying young women's voices and expanding the Gulmakai Network of education activists. This includes the selection of Bondita Acharaya of the Purva Bharati Educational Trust as a Gulmakai Champion, whose project will enroll out-ofschool girls, train girls as education advocates, and work with tea plantations to improve learning outcomes for 3,200 girls in Assam, India.

Lutheran World Relief | Colombia, 2018-2021 To empower women in Tolima, Colombia through improved sanitation and greater economic opportunity. The project will strengthen local women’s associations, increase access to finance through micro-loans, and promote women’s leadership in cooperatives through gender-integration training, ultimately reaching 3,000 people.

Instituto del Café de Costa Rica | Costa Rica, 2018-2019 To support safe places for children of migrant coffee pickers to stay during the day with educational games and tools that promote improved hygiene and well-being at Casas de la Alegria. ICAFE and local partners developed a Health Week for over 500 girls and boys, which included various activities and workshop to promote improved hygiene and well-being for the children and their families.

Barefoot College | India, 2018-2021 To promote women’s economic leadership and wellness in tea communities in India, particularly among seasonal workers. The program will empower women workers with personal skills development and training on technical skills in honey and solar devices production and scale, and also encourage self-care, nutrition and sanitation through greater awareness and better access to facilities, aiming to directly benefit over 3,000 community members.

UNICEF Ethical Tea Partnership | India, 2018-2021 To improve the lives of women and children in Assam’s tea communities. The Ethical Tea Partnership and UNICEF will promote health, nutrition, education, water, sanitation, and hygiene, while also empowering adolescent girls and boys with knowledge, skills, and support.

CARE | Indonesia, 2018-2020 To support women and girls’ economic empowerment and water/sanitation/hygiene (WASH) programs in West Java, Indonesia. The project will engage 1,750 individuals in a tea smallholder village; providing capacity building in women’s leadership, financial literacy and WASH practices as well as greater access to financial services

Lutheran World Relief | Indonesia, 2018-2021 To support women-led community health and hygiene programs for 2,100 households in Indonesian coffee-producing villages. Trainings will focus on improving the capacities of women in leadership roles in addressing and advocating on water, health, and sanitation issues in their communities, including within existing community governance structures.

Roger Federer Foundation | Malawi, 2018-2021 To support quality early childhood education, including water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programs, in community based childcare centers in vulnerable villages bordering tea communities in Malawi. This project includes improvements and educational programming reaching 1,600 children in 10 preschools, as well as empowerment of management committees and caregivers.

Days for Girls International | Rwanda, 2018-2019 To build leadership and income-earning potential of women farmers in Rwanda by creating access to washable menstrual supplies, entrepreneurial opportunities, and community health education training. The establishment of sewing enterprises to locally produce the supplies and a training program to mentor women to serve as community health educators, allow women to fully participate in their communities with confidence.

Send a Cow | Rwanda, 2018-2021 To empower 15,400 people in coffee growing communities in Rwanda with the knowledge and skills to live healthily and sustainably from the land. The project will improve farm production, access to water, sanitation and home hygiene, and support social and economic empowerment leading to healthier homes and families.

World Relief | Rwanda, 2018-2021 To empower 12,960 women to thrive through safe relationships, healthy homes, and clean drinking water and economic opportunity in Rwanda. The program includes training 1,110 women in understanding government policies, strategic priorities, and women’s rights, and establishing train-the-trainer groups and village level women’s leadership forums to build confidence and awareness at the community and national levels.

The Starbucks Foundation’s 2019 Origin Grants to Empower Women and Girls : Starbucks Stories Asia

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The Starbucks Foundation’s 2019 Origin Grants to Empower Women and Girls

On International Women’s Day 2018, The Starbucks Foundation announced a new goal to empower 250,000 women and girls in origin communities by 2025.

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https://stories.starbucks.com/asia/stories/2019/the-starbucks-foundations-origin-grants-to-empower-women-and-girls/

women empowerment

Supporting Women in Coffee, Tea & Cocoa Communities ​

Tata Starbucks Launches Initiative to Transform Lives of Girls in India Through Education

Belinda Wong among China’s Most Influential Businesswomen

The Starbucks Foundation’s 2019 Origin Grants to Empower Women and Girls

Supporting Women in Coffee, Tea & Cocoa Communities