Starbucks Partners Across EMEA Unite with Volunteering Programmes in Their Local Communities
Each April marks Starbucks Global Month of Service, the highlight of our year round commitment to having a positive impact in the communities we serve. Here’s what’s took place across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
Kazakhstan
In Kazakhstan orphanages are always in need of urgent help as they rely on donations and volunteers to keep running. Thirty-five Starbucks partners spent the day clearing an area at an orphanage in Almaty, Kazakthstan, for a new playground for the children. More than 50 plastic bags of rubbish were collected. Afterwards, the team provided coffee and baked treats for all the children and volunteers to enjoy.
Russia
One hundred partners from store teams across Moscow wore their gardening gloves with pride to help turn the city’s Kuzminki-Lyublino park into a space where the natural fauna could flourish as fallen debris meant the wildlife was suffering. After breakfast and a warm up session, the teams divided into groups, each focussing on either clearing, painting or building bird houses, and turning the park into a beautiful space for all to enjoy. Across Russia, another 50 partners came together to volunteer to revamp the gardens of orphanages in Samara, Tyumen and Yekaterinburg. In addition to gardening, the teams painted all of the outside furniture to create a brighter, more creative space for the children to play.
Amsterdam
Keeping Amsterdam clean motivates district manager Babette van den Berge to volunteer. In April, she helped coordinate a service project with the local government and nonprofit NederlandSchoon to remove rubbish from city streets and Vondelpark, one of the city’s most famous parks.
“I’m very glad that I can be of assistance to others and to my community,” said van den Berge. “I am proud to work for a company that serves, because it is necessary. We do it from the heart and that’s a very positive feeling.”
“Volunteers like those from Starbucks who organise clean-up activities are very important,” said NederlandSchoon Program Manager Dorien Bosselaar. “We depend on them to reach our goals.”
Nearly every quarter, van den Berge coordinates a service project. There’s never a shortage of volunteers from the stores in her district.
“I try to lead by example and share the kind words from the nonprofits and other people that we support. This encourages partners to help too,” she said. “There’s always something you can do and it’s such rewarding work.”
Scotland
A team of 16 partners from Edinburgh have been working in close partnership with Waverley Care, who offer residential support for people living with HIV and Hepatitis C, in recent years. This year the local store managers spent the day at Waverley Care’s Milestone Gardens – a four acre site that needs continuous year-round work to maintain a welcoming, positive and relaxing environment for visitors. The team cleared flowers beds, scrubbed walkways, pruned tress, cleared drains, built benches, planted grass seed and improved paths during a very active day. Continuing in Scotland with supporting local community gardens, store partners from Dunfermline spent the day at The Friary Community Garden in Inverkeithing. The Garden acts as a hub for those with learning disabilities and the store team stepped in to clear away debris and bricks, as well as ferrying water from a nearby source to the garden to help with longer term projects.
England
Led by district manager Anna Vani, 10 store managers from west London spent the day at West London Free School Primary in Hammersmith volunteering their time to plant bulbs in the school’s allotment. The partners also stepped in with brushes and overalls to help paint doorways to brighten up the outside of the building and create a warm and welcoming environment for the children.