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SEATTLE -- Today Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) announced new initiatives as part of its long-standing commitment to use its scale and platform to positively impact the communities it serves. The company will invest $100 million to launch the Starbucks Community Resilience Fund focused on supporting small businesses and community development projects in Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) neighborhoods. In addition, Starbucks is partnering with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to share the museum’s educational resources and digital volunteer opportunities.

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“Starbucks has always been a company focused on caring for our partners, creating experiences for our customers and playing a positive role in our communities and throughout society,” said Kevin Johnson, Starbucks president and ceo. “We are excited to make this investment as it aligns with our Mission and Values and supports our aspiration to advance equity and opportunity in the communities we serve.”

Advancing racial equity and environmental resilience

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By 2025, the Starbucks Community Resilience Fund will invest $100 million to advance racial equity and environmental resilience by supporting small business growth and community development projects in neighborhoods with historically limited access to capital. The investments will initially focus on 12 U.S. metropolitan areas and their surrounding regions: Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and Washington D.C.

In partnership with community leaders, Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) and other impact-focused financial institutions, the Fund will help provide access to capital intended to support small businesses and neighborhood projects, including those addressing the inequitable impacts of climate change.

As part of the initiative, Starbucks will work with partners like the Opportunity Finance Network to allocate funds to local CDFIs that will provide borrowers with access to capital, ongoing mentorship and technical assistance.

“Starbucks is investing in the survival of small business by working with CDFIs in key cities across America. CDFIs deliver affordable credit as well as training on disaster recovery and rebuilding – and that is exactly what small businesses need right now to withstand ongoing economic and climate changes,” said OFN President and CEO, Lisa Mensah. “With partners like Starbucks and CDFIs, these small businesses will have a fighting chance to recover, rebuild, hire workers and serve their local economy.”

The effort expands on Starbucks 2019 commitment to <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2019/starbucks-invests-10-million-in-small-business-in-chicago/">invest $10 million in four Chicago-based CDFIs</a>: Accion Chicago, Chicago Community Loan Fund (CCLF), IFF and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC).

"As Chicago continues down the road to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, Starbucks commitment to bettering the cities and communities they serve has been incredibly invaluable," said Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot. "Thanks to their investment, Chicago's CDFIs, such as Accion, CCLF and more, will be able to both continue the necessary work of increasing access to funding for our small businesses – especially those located in neighborhoods struggling with historic disinvestment – and support our ongoing, citywide efforts to provide COVID relief grants to our business community. I remain immensely grateful to Starbucks for their dedication to uplifting our neighborhoods – work that aligns with our city's INVEST South/West initiative."

<a href="https://www.greenerachicago.com">Green Era Sustainability</a> was among the first organizations to receive loans from CDFIs that Starbucks invested in last year. Green Era has been raising funds to construct a sustainable campus in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood of Chicago. The campus will include a 2-acre clean energy generation facility, an urban farm, green houses, an outdoor fresh produce market, a visitor center with classrooms for community activities and a STEM education center. Among other positive impacts to the community, Green Era is expected to create 247 construction jobs and 25 permanent jobs.

“Starbucks investment means we’ve been able to drive more capital to small businesses and nonprofits that are innovating and providing critical services in local communities,” says Matthew Roth, IFF President of Core Business Solutions, who leads the agency’s CDFI wing. “The pandemic has highlighted how important CDFIs are in the financial ecosystem, ensuring capital reaches non-profits and small businesses serving low-income communities that are traditionally left out of mainstream finance.”

CDFIs often collaborate with multiple lenders to make large projects like Green Era’s sustainable campus possible. Two of Starbucks investees – IFF and CCLF – each made loans to Green Era to support the project, in addition to other impact-focused financial institutions. Additional financing for the project also came from Partners for the Common Good and Reinvestment Fund as well as the local impact investor Benefit Chicago.

“Given the severe impact of the pandemic on the long-disinvested communities CCLF serves, our lending is more important than ever to help these communities grow and thrive,” said Bob Tucker, Chief Operating Officer for the Chicago Community Loan Fund. “Our customers have urgent needs, and Starbucks investment in CCLF will help tremendously in bringing them the resources they need.”

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Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy

As part of Starbucks long-standing heritage of honoring Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy of service, the company announced a collaboration with NMAAHC to share the museum’s digital educational resources and opportunities through Starbucks digital platforms. &nbsp;

As part of the collaboration, Starbucks will invite partners and customers to participate in the Freedmen’s Bureau Transcription Project. Through the project, volunteers can help digitally transcribe handwritten records containing information from newly emancipated Black people during the Reconstruction period. The initiative helps African Americans discover their ancestors and historians better understand the years following the Civil War. These records will be used later in a museum exhibition planned for 2021 on the Reconstruction Era.

Starbucks partners with National Museum of African American History and Culture

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The partnership builds on the company’s ongoing <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/starbucks-announces-new-commitments-to-advance-racial-and-social-equity/">commitment to promote racial and social equity</a> on behalf of its partners and communities it serves.

Starbucks customers can access the <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2021/starbucks-partners-with-national-museum-of-african-american-history-and-culture/">museum’s content</a> through the Starbucks App and Starbucks Stories beginning January 12 through February.

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Since 1971, Starbucks Coffee Company has been committed to ethically sourcing and roasting high-quality&nbsp;arabica&nbsp;coffee. Today, with more than 32,000 stores around the globe, the company is the premier roaster and retailer of specialty coffee in the world. Through our unwavering commitment to excellence and our guiding principles, we bring the unique&nbsp;Starbucks Experience&nbsp;to life for every customer through every cup. To share in the experience, please visit us in our stores or online at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.starbucks.com">www.starbucks.com</a>.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release are “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of the applicable securities laws and regulations. Generally, these statements can be identified by the use of words such as “continue,” “could,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “should,” “will,” “would,” and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. These statements include statements relating to: the anticipated timing, scope and effects of our initiatives and our continued investment plans. These forward-looking statements do not represent historical data, are based on currently available operating, financial and competitive information and are subject to a number of significant risks and uncertainties. Actual future results and trends may differ materially depending on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to the risks detailed in the company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the “Risk Factors” sections of Starbucks Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 27, 2020. The company assumes no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements.

The company will invest $100 million to launch the Starbucks Community Resilience Fund focused on supporting small businesses and community development.

Starbucks expands initiatives to advance opportunity, equity and inclusion

Stories to inspire and nurture the human spirit

Starbucks Stories

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Starbucks Corporation

Starbucks expands initiatives to advance opportunity, equity and inclusion in the communities it serves

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The company will invest $100 million to launch the Starbucks Community Resilience Fund focused on supporting small businesses and community development projects.

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The Starbucks Foundation has awarded $1.5 million to more than 400 nonprofits, nominated by partners, which are stretching to meet the rising need during COVID-19, particularly in the BIPOC communities. We spotlight three of them.

Jamila Coleman never turns her phone off – not when she sleeps, not on weekends, not on holidays. Never. If a girl needs her support, she wants to make sure someone is there to answer the call.

It’s what she says she wished she had when she was a little girl. Coleman, who grew up in the foster system, is the executive director of You Grow Girl!, a Seattle-based nonprofit.

“For me, it’s about my own internal trauma of not having someone there on the other end of the phone and trying to break that cycle,” she said.

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<a href="https://www.yougrowgirl.org/">You Grow Girl!</a>, which Coleman founded 18 years ago, focuses on inspiring girls and young women through mentorship, counseling, leadership and more. These days, in the midst of a pandemic, the “more” part has taken on new dimensions. The accountants on staff are now also starting to teach common core math to girls struggling with online school. Coleman and therapists are doing porch drop offs for food and other basic needs supplies on the porches of 10 to 15 families a week, something You Grow Girl! didn’t budget for this year but “as long as the card goes through each week, I’m swiping it,” she said.

“We wear many hats here,” she added. “I only get paid for one hat but it’s a magic hat, so you’ve got to keep flipping it.”

More than 400 grants from The Starbucks Foundation

In the midst of COVID-19, which is disproportionally affecting people of color, a racial justice movement and a struggling economy, nonprofits are stretching to meet the need. In response, The Starbucks Foundation recently awarded Neighborhood Grants to You Grow Girl! and <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2020/the-starbucks-foundation-awards-neighborhood-grants-to-advance-racial-equity/">more than 400 other nonprofit organizations</a> in the U.S. and Canada. Recipients of the awards, which totaled $1.5 million, were nominated by Starbucks partners, with priority given to Black-led grassroots nonprofits that serve Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities.

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“The research shows organizations led by people of color tend to receive fewer donations,” said Aldrinana Leung, manager of The Starbucks Foundation. "Through this round of Neighborhood Grants, we sought to recognize organizations that create more inclusive communities by promoting economic mobility and opportunity, delivering health and social services, and working with youth.”

All of the nonprofits were nominated Starbucks partners across the country, many of which have ongoing relationships with nonprofit organizations in their communities.

"The Starbucks Foundation wanted to tap into the on-the-ground knowledge of Starbucks partners to impact local communities,” said Alicia Vermaele of The Starbucks Foundation. “The Starbucks partners are each members of a community and understand the needs and opportunities in their neighborhoods and the local organizations serving their communities. We are in a really unique position to listen to insights from partners through the Neighborhood Grants nominations process.”

Vermaele said that she hopes the Neighborhood Grant program helps to strengthen the web of community support by fostering the connections between local nonprofits and store partners &nbsp;in the form of volunteering, hosting community drives and more.

&nbsp;“The opportunity for the connection with partners and the deepening of that relationship is where the magic happens,” she said.

You Grow Girl! was nominated by more than 50 Starbucks partners for a Neighborhood Grant from The Starbucks Foundation to help respond to the rising needs. Prior to COVID-19, You Grow Girl! served 100 girls a month. Now that number has increased to 150 and will likely keep climbing.

“The pandemic happened, a racial crisis happened, flu season is about to happen,” Coleman said. And, the holiday season is when You Grow Girl! sees an increase in mental health needs.

‘This is their family’

Staff members don’t call those served “clients,” but rather “participants” to honor their commitment to work toward healing, she says. She also calls them her sisters.

“We want to acknowledge they belong here, and this is their family,” she said. “I define family not by blood but the power of healing together, collaboration, how we learn from each other and grow with each other and sometimes agree to disagree.”

Coleman was 7 when she went into foster care following her birth family’s struggles with substance abuse and incarceration. “I struggled with trust and finding a place where I belonged,” she said.

Where she belonged, it turned out, was with Gracie Robinson, a domestic violence counselor who became her foster mom. “Ms. Gracie,” as people call her, is retired now but still active in volunteering with social service organizations, including You Grow Girl!. (“She shaped me to the woman I am today,” Coleman said.) Coleman’s daughter, 19-year old Annara Morn, is a college student who also works with the organization as a youth mentor. One of her foster sisters, Mila Presnell, is the administrative services director

Both Coleman and Mila were placed with Robinson a few years apart and remained connected even after Presnell returned back to her birth mother. Coleman aged out of the system at 18.

‘We’re all human at the end of the day’

Zoe Peralta-Page is a You Grow Girl! therapist who is also a Starbucks partner. Peralta-Page did an internship with the nonprofit as she was finishing her master’s degree. When the pandemic began, she took a leave from her job as Starbucks shift supervisor to work full-time for You Grow Girl! and help meet the rising need for mental health services.

“It boils down to the hierarchy of needs – food, shelter and access to services,” she said. Sometimes that means connecting the girls with a program for free internet. Other times it has meant supporting those in foster care cope with not seeing their birth families after the state suspended parental visits due to COVID-19.&nbsp;&nbsp;

“We’re all human at the end of the day and we’ve got to help other people who are going through it too,” she said.

Coleman originally founded You Grow Girl! to serve girls in the foster system, but now it’s open to any girl who wants support, with a focus on BIPOC communities. The organization offers its sisters tools for sustainable success, Coleman say, starting with mental health care as a foundation. From there, if the goal is to get an apartment, the organization helps make sure they have everything they’ll need to not only reach it, but to maintain it, such as an ID or driver’s license and a stable job and an understanding of what it will take to pay bills.

“In the real world, that’s hard to do. Those life skills are not taught in school,” she said. “And your family didn’t teach you those skills because they weren’t taught because the cycle hasn’t been broken. Let’s address that.”

At You Grow Girl!, no one has to do it on her own, she said.

“We are a sisterhood and we all contribute,” she said. “There’s hard work where we constantly have to push roadblocks out of the way but that’s what I signed up for. Family and allyship means being there.”

‘Community is the reason I’m here’

For former Starbucks partner Shyheim Banks, community is nourishment for the soul. A self-proclaimed extrovert, connecting with customers and coworkers during his shifts as a barista came naturally. When he wasn’t at work, he was also a hip-hop artist, poet and activist, so it was a melding of his passions when he was offered a full-time role with <a href="https://www.1hood.org/">1Hood Media</a>, a Pittsburgh nonprofit that aims to raise awareness on social justice issues through song writing, photography, videography and other forms of art.

A year later, when Banks’ former manager Jesse Maxwell nominated 1Hood Media for a Neighborhood Grant from The Starbucks Foundation, the feeling of community has come full circle.

Banks says he is driven by a moral commitment to serve the youth in his hometown. “If it wasn’t for the community that I’m a part of, a lot of the opportunities that I’ve been granted wouldn’t have happened,” said Banks, who also goes by his artist name Treble NLS. “Community is the reason I’m here.”&nbsp;

Growing up, Banks said he experienced struggles with mental health, but the art and music community helped him feel supported and that he had a place where he belonged.

“I was reminded I’m not just one person going through things, I’m one person in a community going through things.&nbsp; Knowing that you’re not the only one really does something for you,” Banks said.

1Hood co-founder Jasiri X and Banks met through their shared involvement in community events, seeing each other at performances, protests for racial justice and more. “He always showed up, always with a positive spirit,” Jasiri remembers. “He wasn’t only emerging as an artist, but as a real leader in the community.”

At 1Hood, Jasiri says Banks is an asset not only as a member of the 1Hood team, but as a resource and role model to next generation of artists and activists. Banks, who now teaches songwriting, poetry and music engineering at the non-profit, has a calm demeanor that is counter-balanced by his positive, passionate energy, say those who know him.&nbsp;

“He’s such a kind soul,” said Maxwell, his former Starbucks manager, “the kind of presence you miss having in the store.”&nbsp;

Banks said his time at Starbucks helped lay the groundwork for his current role. “Working at Starbucks allowed me to connect with people,” he said. “They let me be me.”

1Hood, which was founded in 2006, serves both youth and young adults and offers media literacy training, conflict resolution and classes and workshops on songwriting, vocal instruction, music production, blogging, photography and videography.

“We need to be advocates for the young people in our community,” said Jasiri, “our power is in our unity.”

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Banks led programs for 1Hood at the Shuman Center, a juvenile detention facility, to teach young artists how to refine their writing skills and find their own true, authentic voice. Watching students flourish in their artistic expression is therapeutic, said Banks. “It provides me with purpose and shows me that my work is needed, my words are needed. It makes me feel like I actually have a place here in society.”

Both Banks and Jasiri said they found their own voices through music and want to provide the tools and resources for others to do the same. “The more opportunities we can give young people to use their voice,” said Jasiri, “the more opportunity we have to connect with them on other topics.”

‘Genuine love will change you’

In the historic Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C., the Starbucks Community Store and the family and youth center Children of Mine are actual neighbors, though in the five months since the store opened, they’ve found they share far more than an alley.

“This organization does what we also try to do at Starbucks – to provide hope, strength and inspiration for our community. To create a passion for service. To create opportunities. Nominating them (for a Neighborhood Grant) was a no-brainer for me,” said Tyron Shumate, store manager of the Starbucks.

“Plus, if I walk out our back gate, it’s maybe 125 feet to their door. That’s one of the other reasons it made so much sense for us to collaborate – we’re pretty much taking up the whole block, so we might as well be in cahoots,” Shumate said, laughing.

<a href="https://childrenofminedc.org/">Children of Mine Youth Center</a> has provided nearly four decades of quiet, steadfast support for families in the neighborhood through after-school programs, activities and meals, many of which are not just for children, but for the whole family.

Shumate has been particularly inspired by Eugene Howie, the center’s executive director, who quickly looked for ways the center could adapt to help meet the unique needs of families in the time of COVID-19. The center has had to pause much of its in-person programming, but each day at 4 p.m. provides dinner for children in the neighborhood. On Fridays, the organization provides dinner plus a “weekend bag” full of food and snacks to help carry children into the weekend. Howie said the grant from The Starbucks Foundation will help fund hundreds of those meals. And we’re not talking sack lunches here.

“We do homestyle meals. Burgers and hot dogs. Lasagna and French bread. We serve some of the best fried chicken in the city, and it’s not from a restaurant, which is very cool. And we have an urban farm, which we try to incorporate into our meals as well. Nobody has to be hungry,” Howie said.

Howie grew up in Anacostia and has watched as each chapter of its complicated story unfold. The neighborhood has one of the best views of the U.S. Capitol in the city and is the place to watch fireworks over the National Mall. It is known for its food, style, hip-hop and history – it was home to abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglass. But the early 1980s, when a woman named <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/hannah-hawkins-who-started-child-care-program-in-gritty-dc-neighborhood-dies-at-75/2015/05/23/8dc99c02-f9a2-11e4-9ef4-1bb7ce3b3fb7_story.html">Hannah Hawkins</a> started providing hot meals from her apartment to neighborhood children as well as giving them clean clothing and lessons (an effort that would soon become Children of Mine), she did so to a backdrop of drugs, drive-by shootings and police helicopters.

“When Children of Mine got started 38 years ago, this neighborhood was really, really tough. But no matter what was going on, this organization stood. We have been there, quietly impacting families starting with the child at the center, then their parents, then the community, working to strengthen that circle from the inside out, and the outside in,” Howie said. “When I tell you I grew up here, I was here. I was a paper boy. All of the transitions, all of the changes, I’ve been here for them. To see Starbucks come to the neighborhood, that’s a pretty big deal.”

In just a few short months, Shumate and Howie – who share a passion for service and community building – have already formed an energetic and formidable team. A team of neighbors.

“Why does any of this matter? For us, it’s about love,” Howie said. “No matter where people come from, what walk of life, background, color or geography, love is what binds a community and makes it strong. We don’t have to always agree or even get along, but when I think of the why behind it all? I’ve watched how showing love on a consistent basis can take a person who is hostile or angry and change their very nature. Genuine love will change you. That’s the real why, is to show and promote genuine love so we will have the community we’re all aiming for.”

The Starbucks Foundation awards $1.5M in Neighborhood Grants to advance racial equity

Photo credits You Grow Girl!: photos by Joshua Trujillo 1Hood Media: photos by Vernon Young Children of Mine: photos by Ting Chen

The Starbucks Foundation has awarded $1.5 million to more than 400 nonprofits,which are stretching to meet the rising need in the BIPOC communities.

Three Black-led nonprofits respond to unprecedented times

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One long day last June, Renee Fenker started work at 6:30 a.m. as a Starbucks store manager in Santa Cruz, Calif. Later that afternoon, on her way home, her emergency pager went off: car crash nearby. She raced straight to the Felton Fire Station, where she assumed her other role as a volunteer firefighter and fire engine driver.

Within minutes, she was driving a crew of first responders to the scene, eventually taking care of a passenger who’d been injured in the head-on collision, looking after bystanders and cleaning up spilled fuel on the road.

“I just really love to help people,” says Fenker, who started at Starbucks as a 17-year-old barista. &nbsp;

“That’s why I ended up at Starbucks, we really care about who’s on the other side (of the counter). Being a firefighter, being an EMT, it’s being able to get out there and help out someone when they’re having their worst day. We have that ability to create that kindness within our homes, our communities.”

For the last six years, she’s juggled working at Starbucks and volunteering as a firefighter, sometimes doing back-to-back shifts. Her husband, Nathan, is also a Felton volunteer firefighter. Experiences from both jobs have fit together well. She's used the communication and conflict management skills she’s learned at Starbucks to help de-escalate tense situations while responding to 911 calls. During COVID-19, her department has been supporting local shelters and a mental-health facility, helping people in the area prepare their properties for wildfire season and continuing to train new recruits.&nbsp;

Inspired by Fenker’s efforts and passion, The Starbucks Foundation is supporting the Felton Fire Protection District with a $2,500 grant, which will go towards helping the all-volunteer department continue supporting their community.

Hers is just one story, part of $1 million in Neighborhood Grants ranging from $2,500 to $7,500, which will be distributed to 400 organizations across the United States and Canada. The Starbucks Foundation grants are designed to help build sustained local impact and inspire increased partner volunteerism with nonprofits that work in our communities. The organizations are the third round of recipients to be awarded Neighborhood Grants, which were first announced in the fall of 2019. This round has a focus on COVID-19 community response.

"As we were looking to further support communities impacted by COVID-19, The Starbucks Foundation turned to partners to share the challenges facing their communities,” says Aldrinana Leung, manager, The Starbucks Foundation. “We heard from nearly 3,000 partners&nbsp;who provided insight into the needs&nbsp;in their communities and local organizations working to support their neighbors. These Neighborhood Grants represent thousands of connections and the positive impact our partners make in their communities every day."

<a href="https://www.domesticshelters.org/help/ky/shepherdsville/40165/the-center-for-women-and-families-bullitt-county">The Center for Women and Families in Shepherdsville, Ky.</a>

Justice Jones, a Starbucks store manager, nominated this organization for helping her leave an abusive relationship. The organization supported her as she was getting a restraining order in court, offered therapy afterwards and helped her build a support system of women who had been through similar experiences.

“They gave me a lot of ease throughout the worst time of my life,” Jones says. “I am incredibly grateful for them.”

The growing economic and emotional toll of the pandemic is likely exacerbating abusive relationships, Justice says, with families increasingly stressed due to unemployment and victims of abuse trapped in close quarters due to quarantine measures.

“The nation as a whole is currently in a much worse place to provide support for victims in these kinds of circumstances,” she says. “So it is more important now than ever to know the resources available and be able and willing to reach out to one another.”

<a href="http://www.batshaw.qc.ca/en">Batshaw Youth and Family Centres Foundation in Montreal</a>

Cassidy Vanderveen, Starbucks store manager, nominated Batshaw, thinking back to her own experience as a homeless teenager, when she slept in parks or on friends’ couches, and showed up at school early to shower and get ready.

“If I had an organization like Batshaw to go to, I strongly believe a lot of things in my life wouldn’t have been so traumatizing,” Vanderveen says. “Everything I did in life had to be the hard way, and it’s exhausting. When you’re a homeless child (on your own), it’s a lot different than being a homeless adult, because these are the years when a parent is supposed to guide you. You’re supposed to be learning life skills, not thrown in to sink or swim.”

Vanderveen, who encounters people who are homeless regularly on the job at Starbucks, is concerned about how COVID-19 is affecting “our most vulnerable humans.”

“When we take care of our most vulnerable, we take care of our society as a whole,” she says. “A team is only as strong as its weakest link, and if COVID has taught us anything, it’s that we need to be coming together as a team to get through this.”

<a href="http://chipsonline.org/">CHiPS in Brooklyn, N.Y.</a>

Ilisa McLachlan manages the Starbucks store located across the street from the nonprofit soup kitchen and women’s shelter. She’s seen firsthand the positive impact it has had on her community and “the level of love and care that they show for everyone that is in need.”

McLachlan remembers the first day her Starbucks opened about two years ago when the executive director and director of food services from CHiPS walked into the store, introduced themselves and immediately offered their support. During the COVID-19 crisis, CHiPS has created a community pop-up food distribution center.

“They are in it for the right reasons,” McLachlan says. “They center everything around making people feel welcome, and talk to all people with respect, even the roughest of the rough. I’ve witnessed how this makes a big difference. That’s why I chose them.”

The Starbucks Foundation: Supporting Community Response and Resilience during COVID-19

Helping the helpers: Starbucks partners inspire local impact in their communities - Starbucks Stories

Helping the helpers: Starbucks partners inspire local impact in their communities

Four hundred organizations across the U.S. and Canada, nominated by Starbucks partners who work in their communities, will receive Neighborhood Grants designed to help build sustained local impact.

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Helping the helpers: Starbucks partners inspiring local impact in their communities

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Beverly, Mass. – Heather Staples, a 14-year Starbucks partner, manages a store about a mile down the road from the hospital where her wife, brother and sister-in-law work.

Last week, someone there suggested her brother, an operating nurse, bring a bandanna to protect his face because there weren’t enough masks to go around. When Staples heard this, her stomach dropped. 

“It's a horrible position for medical workers to be in, and a horrible situation we're in right now with the virus,” she said. “I felt really helpless. I think a lot of us feel really helpless right now. So, I just thought, ‘What's one thing that I could do right now that might make a difference?’”

Masks. She would sew face masks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that in<a> </a>the<a> </a><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/ppe-strategy/face-masks.html#crisis-capacity">absence of medical facemasks,</a> homemade ones could be used <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/respirators-strategy/crisis-alternate-strategies.html#references">as a last resort</a> in caring for patients, ideally in combination with a face shield. While far from ideal, during the shortage of medical masks some hospitals are issuing <a href="https://vimeo.com/399324367/13cd93f150?fbclid=IwAR2gFlRRa_lHakuR5SZvCJUPb0KGxXhpuTeMyH8S70zpcvCGAtR3dLkbpn8">video directions</a> or patterns, along with <a href="https://www.chop.edu/how-make-homemade-diy-face-mask">requests</a> for them to be donated.

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Staples downloaded patterns from the internet and started a Facebook page to enlist help across the city (it’s now at more than 400 members). She hauled her sewing machine, ironing board, fabric, elastic and other supplies into one corner of her <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/starbucks-temporarily-moving-to-primarily-drive-thru-only-in-us-confirms-expanded-catastrophe-pay-for-worried-partner/">temporarily closed Starbucks café</a> and got sewing. Well, sewing when she wasn’t working. The drive thru at her store is still open, and it’s a busy one.

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“We wanted to do everything we could to stay open because we are right next to the hospital, and we have tons of first responders and hospital staff that come through the drive through all the time,” Staples said. “The partners are -- you know, morale is really high. We're really excited to be here for the community.”

About half of her regular team have chosen to stay home <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/starbucks-temporarily-moving-to-primarily-drive-thru-only-in-us-confirms-expanded-catastrophe-pay-for-worried-partner/">on paid leave</a>, and the rest are making it work. Many of her store partners are sewing, too.

“Before shifts, after shifts, on breaks – we’re just trying to get as many masks out as we possibly can,” Staples said. The partners have made about 45 in the last four days, and the community has made more than 600. (Starbucks partners may also now buy or make their own masks and wear them to work in the store, if they wish.)

The store has also become a "command central" for community drop-offs and donations. The team is packaging the masks – both regular and ones designed to fit over an N95 respirator to help prolong the life of it – into care packages with coffee travelers, snacks donated from Starbucks and others in the city, Starbucks Via Instant Coffee and notes she’s collected from children in the community thanking health care workers.

“We sent out four different care packages this morning, and all day I was getting messages from nurses,” Staples said. “One of them said, ‘You know, there were so many happy tears on the floor today. We just really felt like someone finally cares.’ Which broke my heart. But I think a lot of nurses and doctors feel like they've kind of being thrown into a war they're not really prepared for, and one they're not being given the tools they need to fight appropriately. It’s definitely made my heart grow 10 sizes just to see how the community has come together to support our healthcare professionals. We want to do whatever we can do to help them feel supported, loved and appreciated.”

“Somebody told me today, ‘Worst case scenario, everyone across the country sews masks and we don’t end up needing them and at the end of all this, we have a million little dog sweaters,’” Staples said, laughing. “But best-case scenario, we actually make something our doctors and nurses can use.”

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Starbucks partners use empty café as mask sewing station - Starbucks Stories

Starbucks partners use empty café as mask sewing station

When Heather Staples heard a local hospital was running low on supplies, she and her baristas turned their temporarily closed café into a sewing station for masks.

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Terrel, Texas – Olivia Rice was proud of herself for leaving early enough Tuesday to get coffee on her way to work as communications director of the local school district. Then, as she was about to get to Starbucks, she hit a pothole.

“I was like, ‘I'm going to treat myself to Starbucks and sit in my car in silence for five minutes before tackling my day.’ And then boom, flat tire,” Olivia said. 

Barista Alejandro Montenegro, a nearly four-year Starbucks partner, saw her through the drive thru window as she pulled into the parking lot and began to struggle with the spare tire.

“I’ve been in that position before. It’s kind of a nuisance,” said Alejandro, who is studying to become a firefighter at Trinity Valley Community College while working at Starbucks. He ran out and helped her change her tire. After they got the spare on, he was using the jack to lower the car to the ground, he realized he was still wearing his drive thru headset.

“He said, ‘what would you like to order?’” Olivia wrote on Facebook later that morning. “Y'ALL, he took my order WHILE he changed my tire!”

Her order? An iced coffee and a flat white.

“You cannot make these things up,” Olivia said. 

When she got to the window, the drinks were ready – and free.

“She was already having a hard morning,” Alejandro said. “The thing with doing good deeds is that it seems to have a trickle effect. If you help someone, even for a moment, it can influence how the rest of their day goes, and then when they interact with people, those conversations will be better. It’s a whole butterfly effect.”

Alejandro and the flat (white) - Starbucks Stories

A Starbucks barista takes customer service to the next level.

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Alejandro and the flat (white)

Issaquah, Wash. – It is likely most of us will experience the moment when this global health crisis moves from something happening on the news to something happening down the street. For Kyle Hansen, that moment came March 16.

That’s the day the Starbucks store manager saw on the news someone at a nearby nursing and rehabilitation center had died of COVID-19 and seven other residents and staff members were sick. His heart sank. The following day, due to new guidance about not gathering in large groups, the store’s Coffee with a Cop event with the local police department was cancelled.

Things started feeling really heavy, really quickly. Kyle could feel the wave of fear, anxiety and uncertainty pass through his team and to be honest, it swept over him, too.&nbsp; 

“When it hits two miles from your store it feels very different than when its farther away,” he said. “I could see the weight of everything going on right now with the coronavirus, the weight of everything going on in the world right now, heavy on their shoulders.”

Kyle took a deep breath, went to the back room and pulled out the Starbucks operations handbook. He was surprised to find everything he was looking for on Page 18.

Handbook: “Now more than ever, the world needs places to come together with compassion and love.” (This part was in bold.)

“But we can’t gather as a community the way we normally would,” Kyle thought. He kept reading.

Handbook: “We provide consistency to create a sense of certainty in an uncertain world.”

“OK. If there was ever uncertainty in the world, that’s, like, literally right now,” he thought. “I wonder if, without putting anyone at risk, there’s still an opportunity to find a way to connect with people?”

This is the question he posed to his team, and they decided there was a way. If the cops couldn’t come to coffee, coffee would go to the cops … and the fire department. And city hall. And all of the nearby senior centers and nursing homes. The team prepared travelers full of coffee, each with personalized messages of thanks and encouragement, and Kyle delivered them.

“We decided to bring a little something to people serving our community – people who are experiencing even more uncertainty and unease than we are right now,” Kyle said. “We may have to get creative, but there’s always something small we can do to make a difference – to uplift the days of people who are going through a really hard time.”

It wasn’t long before Starbucks partners all over the world took hold of the same opportunity.&nbsp; They’ve been serving and delivering coffee to hospitals, grocery stores, nursing homes and front-line workers of all kinds. <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/navigating-through-covid-19/">Beginning today through May 3, any customer who identifies as a front-line responder to the COVID-19 outbreak will receive a tall brewed coffee (hot or iced) at no charge.</a>

Starbucks partners bring coffee and comfort to COVID-19 front-line responders - Starbucks Stories

Starbucks partners bring coffee and comfort to COVID-19 front-line responders

Today through May 3, front-line responders to the COVID-19 crisis can get a free tall brewed coffee at Starbucks, as thanks for their service.

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Something happened the morning after Starbucks announced it would pay partners for the next 30 days whether they go to work or not as it closed its cafés and moved to drive-thru and delivery only. Many, many of them still went to work.&nbsp;

They showed up before dawn to help open their drive-thrus. They showed up to fill in at short-staffed neighboring stores. They showed up in the face of a collective global uncertainty they have not experienced in their lifetimes.

“If you are looking for signs of hope, look no further than Starbucks partners,” said Kevin Johnson, Starbucks chief executive officer. “I am proud of how Starbucks partners around the world are rising to the occasion and demonstrating our resilience and our commitment to the communities we serve.”

Amid the ever-shifting global COVID-19 crisis, Starbucks has moved to an adapted drive-thru and delivery only service model for at least two weeks, <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/starbucks-temporarily-moving-to-primarily-drive-thru-only-in-us-confirms-expanded-catastrophe-pay-for-worried-partner/">closing its cafés</a> in the U.S. and Canada (with the exception of some cafés in or around hospitals and health care centers). On Friday, the company <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2020/what-customers-need-to-know-about-starbucks-response-to-covid-19/">committed to paying its retail workers</a> in the U.S. and Canada for the next 30 days, even if their store is closed or they are worried about or uncomfortable going to work.

And then, on Saturday morning, Starbucks drive-thru stores opened for business. In many ways, it was business as usual – Starbucks partners hustling to make beverages and food and chatting with customers. In other ways, it was business as unusual as the world works to navigate this global health crisis.&nbsp;

In Kentwood, Mich., Curtis Monaghan waited nervously in his car Saturday morning to see if the partners scheduled to open the store with him would show up, and was delighted when both of their cars pulled into the parking lot. Throughout the day, the store manager had a chance to speak with each member of his team. A few chose to stay home, some chose to work, but all the conversations felt good and honest, he said.

“Inspiration was the last thing I anticipated feeling walking into my store at 5:30 a.m. to open,” Curtis said. “I was truly inspired at how my team held together.”&nbsp;

Cameron Melcher, a partner since 2008 and two-year store manager, said it was never a question for him what he wanted to do.

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