As a people-first company, Starbucks is committed to enhancing the lives of all who touch the business, from our customers to our partners (employees). In 2013, Starbucks made a commitment to serve our Veteran and military community. As part of our partner promise to <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/mission/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bridge to a better future</a>, we continue to enhance our support for the military community, including Veteran and active military partners and their families. Throughout the last ten years, Starbucks has hired over 40,000 Veterans and military spouses. The company also has a commitment to hire 5,000 more each year going forward and continues to build out its support to the military community through new relocation services, community building efforts and mental health support.

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Through an <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2023/starbucks-strengthens-its-support-for-the-u-s-military-community/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announcement</a> made on July 31, 2023, Starbucks is proud to strengthen its support for the U.S. military community.

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To date, the company has reached more than double and has hired 25,000 veterans and military spouses.

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Starbucks Military Commitment by the numbers

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The customer pulled up to Cassie Schumacher’s drive-thru window on a recent afternoon and noticed the designation on the Starbucks barista’s green apron: Navy veteran. 

But they were all that were needed to convey that the women had a shared bond and deep understanding. They knew what it was like to serve the country alongside other troops who have a shared goal. And they knew the isolation that can come when you leave the military.

“As she waited for her coffee, we talked about how it’s hard to find friends when you leave the military. In the Navy, it’s kind of built in,” she said. “We were able to make that quick connection just through the drive-thru.”

Schumacher works at a Starbucks Military Family Store in the Miramar area of San Diego. Her store, located near several military bases, serves a number of active duty customers as well as veterans. She tries to connect with each customer, making them feel at home. 

That sense of being at home is how she feels when she’s there, she said. Her store partners have become her family. “All my close friends in San Diego have all been made at the store I work at,” she said. They get together regularly for meals and “we call them family dinners and hang out all the time. We try to support each other. There are a lot of military spouses who work in the store.” 

In 2013, Starbucks made a commitment to hire 10,000 veterans and military spouses by 2018. Today, the company is announcing it has reached more than double that and has hired 25,000 veterans and military spouses to date. The company also announced a commitment to hire 5,000 more each year going forward.

It's not just about doing the right thing for those who have served their country, but veterans and military spouses also make the company better, said Matt Kress, senior manager of Veteran and Military Affairs at Starbucks.

“Veterans and military spouses bring unique experiences and culture – they have an incredible sense of dedication, leadership and service,” he said. “One of the reasons they identify with Starbucks is our strong commitment to social impact and making world a better place. It’s a way to continue serving others.”

Kress, himself a veteran who served 22 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, including a special operations combat deployment to Iraq, said that transitioning out of the military into civilian life can be challenging for many veterans.

“The military is a very communal place and when you leave the military you are giving up a huge sense of community and a very strong identity and purpose,” Kress said. “We realized with our stores, which are a third place, (we) could help change that.”

At the time of the hiring commitment in 2013, Starbucks set a goal of dedicating five Military Family Stores, which are typically near military bases and are heavily staffed by veterans and military spouses. Today there are 59 around the country, with two more being dedicated next week. They are often a hub for both those in the service and veterans. Customized green aprons, which identify Starbucks partners as military spouses or veterans, provide a point of connection with customers.

In the military, there’s a culture of troop welfare, said Kress, of taking care of people so they can do great things for others. It’s what Starbucks aims to do with its veterans and military spouses. And, in turn, they do that for customers in large and small ways.

Learn more by joining the <a href="//www.facebook.com/groups/StarbucksMilitaryGroup/">Starbucks Military Community Facebook group</a>

While having hired 25,000 veterans and military spouses is a huge milestone, behind the number are myriad stories of the men and women who have served the country in countless ways. Here are just a few of them: 

Cassie Schumacher: Service in her blood

Schumacher, 25, came from a military family. Service was in her blood. Her dad was in the Army National Guard, one grandfather was in the Army and another was in the Navy. “It was something I’d always wanted to do,” she said. After high school, she joined the Navy and spent the next four years training and working as an avionics technician.

Schumacher has transferred several times with Starbucks. After leaving the Navy, she was originally hired in a store in Ohio and transferred to fulfill her dream of attending the University of Tennessee in Knoxville using the GI Bill. Then she transferred to San Diego with her then-wife, a Marine on active duty.

Starbucks offers military spouses, who face three times the national unemployment rate, the ability to transfer within the company. Too often they are put in the difficult position of having to choose between a job or being with their husband or wife, said Virginia Tenpenny, vice president of global social impact at Starbucks.

When they are hired, they bring a lot to companies because of who they are and their spirit of sacrifice and working for something larger than themselves, she said.

“The first word that comes to mind when I think of Cassie is thoughtful,” said Joann Richards, Schumacher’s store manager. Richards has been a Starbucks partner for 18 years, but this is her first Military Family Store. “I felt like a brand-new manager. Cassie was the first one to step in and help me understand what being a veteran and a military spouse felt like.”

Schumacher is currently finishing her degree in accounting at San Diego State University and said she credits Richards with helping encourage her, giving her a flexible schedule so she can work around classes and setting a tone of support for her and the other partners, celebrating milestones like graduations with cake and balloons.

As a veteran, “the biggest thing I feel now is pride,” she said. “(Starbucks) is a great place for veterans to work – especially with military family stores. There’s a feeling it’s a place of camaraderie and being connected.” 

Ron Jarvi Jr.: ‘Leading through the lens of humanity'

Ron Jarvi Jr., 36, recalls exactly where he was when he saw the Twin Towers fall. He was attending the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minn., and had just woken when he turned on the TV in his dorm room and saw the gray ash that covered everything, the bent metal bones of the melted towers and images of the ambulance bays that waited, empty, for survivors who never came. “I was just shocked that it could happen to us,” he said. “I kind of remember it like it was yesterday. It made an impact on my patriotism.”

His grandfather had served in the Air Force during the Korean War and his father was a retired Army veteran. Growing up, he was drawn to the military, but figured he’d serve four years and then be done. 

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He enlisted in the Army and, in 2009, deployed to the Middle East. Now, 16 years later, he is still serving as a major in the Army National Guard. 

Three years ago, he was recruited to become a district manager for Starbucks and now works in Minnesota. He continues to work part time with the National Guard in human resources, often helping connect those in uniform with job opportunities when they leave the military.

As a Starbucks district manager, he says he’s able to do many of the things that he valued in the military to help build community. “Tonight, (my store) is volunteering at an event for homeless youth,” he said. “I still get to do the things I love to do in the military – support people. We lead through the lens of humanity.”

James Porter: Life-changing interactions

James Porter knew he wanted to go to college – he just had no idea how he could pay for it. He grew up in Texas in a in a single-parent family where money was tight; the only person who had gone to college was an aunt who married in to the family. But he studied hard in school and when he was a sophomore, he went to his guidance counselor to ask for ideas on how to get college paid for. The counselor suggested trying for an ROTC scholarship.

Porter applied and received a full scholarship. “I was that guy who just wanted to get my college paid for and that was it,” he said. “I knew I owed (the Army) at least four years after that and I thought I’ll do my four years and that will be it.”

Today, Porter, 48, is a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves and is attending the Army War College in Pennsylvania. He’s also a Starbucks district manager, based in St. Louis, Mo.

He joined the company several years ago after meeting a battalion commander at an Army Reserves exercise who also happened to be a Starbucks partner. He told Porter he thought Starbucks could be a good fit for him. 

While Porter was deployed to Kuwait in 2015, the partner reached out to him and asked him if he was interested. He was. After he returned, he accepted the position as district manager. 

“Starbucks is very respectful of the military and those still serving,” he said. “That experience and knowledge is valued.”

The leadership experiences he’s had in the military have informed how he leads at Starbucks, he said. And it also goes the other way too. He stresses consistency and collaboration among his troops and the Starbucks partners he manages.

He’s also aware of the power of one person to change someone’s life. Just as the guidance counselor all those years ago set him on the course to college and a military career, he watches out for others, seeing where they are and helping them get where they wanted to go. 

A few months ago, he was on Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, Calif., and saw a face that seemed vaguely familiar. The man, now a sergeant first class, refreshed his memory. Fifteen years ago, he served under Porter, he said. On the eve of their deployment to Iraq, the soldier suddenly didn’t want to go. Issues at home made him reluctant to leave and he had a host of other concerns. Porter spent an hour with him, calming his fears and helping set him up with programs that could help. 

In the end, he not only left with the group when they set out to deploy, but he was still in the military all these years later. 

“He told me, ‘That conversation with you changed my life,’” Porter recalled.

For Porter, it was just part of being a leader. At Starbucks, he aims to continue having that kind of positive impact. Recently he worked with a store manager who had been with the company for 20 years and struggled with confidence, he said. He knew that she was an exemplary partner, and also that she was ready for more responsibility. 

He encouraged her to transfer to a larger-volume store and challenge herself, but she wasn’t sure she could do it. “I told her I wanted to support her and that she was more than capable of making that move,” he said.

Today, that store is breaking records for service time, he said, and that store manager partner is &nbsp;thriving. 

“The leadership experiences I’ve had that I’ve learned from the military have helped me at Starbucks in knowing how to teach and lead,” he said. “I want folks to know how great of a company Starbucks really is to work for.”

Dan Dinsmore: ‘As long as I have coffee, I can do anything’

At the Starbucks Support Center in Seattle, the company’s headquarters, Dan Dinsmore was standing next to the Military Honor Wall. Thousands of medallions are on it, each bearing the name of a military spouse or veteran hired by Starbucks, along with their branch of the military. A sign in the midst says, “There are heroes among us,” an ever-present reminder to all who pass by.&nbsp;

Dinsmore, 43, spent more than two decades in the Marines. From his very first day in the service, when his drill instructor walked into the room of new recruits and barked, “Sit up straight right now!” the military felt like home, he said. “I remember thinking ‘This is exactly where I need to be,’ with that intense accountability and cause-and-effect relationship.”

He spent much of his career with the Marine Corps’ special operations component. As time went on, he reveled in the opportunity to teach younger Marines, 18- and 19-year-old men and women. Dinsmore, who has framed copies of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution at home, is proud of having defended the right to freedom in America in all its forms. “Freedom of speech, freedom of the press. When I see expressions of that, I’m proud that I defended people’s right to do that,” he said.

During his last years of service, he worked as a Marine recruiter, where he became friends with the manager of a Starbucks near his office. Sometimes, if she’d drive by and the lights would be on late, she’d bring coffee for those still working.

Many of the profound moments in his military career centered around coffee, he said, often Starbucks coffee sent from the United States. He remembers being deployed to the Middle East and making a cup of Starbucks Aged Sumatra in a coffee press on the hood of a Humvee. Another time, after being given increased responsibilities, his Chief Warrant Officer checked in to see if he was too overloaded. “I told him, as long as I have coffee, I can do anything,” he said.

So, when he was considering retiring from the military, he thought his passion for coffee, and Starbucks’ support for the military, might make the company a good fit.

But the day after he retired from the Marines, he had a beer with a friend who cautioned him that while in the military if someone says they have your back, they absolutely have your back, in the corporate world, that may come with a lot of caveats. He wasn’t sure what to expect in his first job in decades outside the military.

In the year and a half he’s been at Starbucks, he’s found the sense of camaraderie core to the military through the deep friendships he’s built with other veterans at the company. He was surprised to discover that he and Kress actually were in the same special ops unit at Camp Pendleton, Calif., just at different times. Now they go cycling together regularly on weekends, and both are active in one of the 16 Starbucks Armed Forces Network chapters around the United States.

Although the company has hired more than twice the number of its original hiring commitment, there’s more work to be done, said Tenpenny. Creating more ways for veterans to connect with each other, such as through the AFN and veteran service organizations that partner with Starbucks is one area the company can continue to improve. Another is to continue to find ways to help bridge the gap between veterans and civilians in a time when fewer than 1 percent of the population choose to serve.

“Our continued work is to help build understanding and connections between those related to the military and those who aren’t,” she said. “Veterans volunteer to serve their country out of patriotism and love of country. That love of country is something we can all learn from, their sacrifices and being motivated and connected to something bigger than you.”

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Starbucks partner and Navy vet Cassie Diederich

Five years ago, Starbucks committed to hiring 10,000 veterans and military spouses by 2018. Today, the company has hired 21,000 – more than twice that original commitment, each one unique in his or her way. Meet some of the remarkable men and women who make up that number.

Meet some of veterans and military spouses Starbucks hired

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A life of service: Meet some of the 25,000 veterans and military spouses Starbucks has hired

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Starbucks announced today that it has hired 25,000 veterans and military spouses since 2013. Meet some of the veterans and Starbucks partners behind that number.

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In honor of Military Spouse Appreciation Day on May 10, four Starbucks partners who have adapted to the unique challenges of life as military spouses offer their best advice for making relocation as painless as possible.

Moving is hard – so hard, it regularly makes the short list of life’s most stressful moments. But packing tape, bubble wrap, boxes and waking up in a strange, new place called home is all part of the drill for military spouses.

Lenae Harris knows that well. Harris, a Starbucks store manager in Crestview, Florida, has moved four times with her husband, who is in the Air Force, since the two were married in 2012.

Washington. Alaska. Ohio. Florida. Harris said the couple doesn’t always know a move is coming, but she always has her guard up.

“My husband will call me and say, ‘Guess what, we’re moving.’ And I will say, ‘Seriously? We just got here!’” Harris said.

Fortunately, her career has moved with her. Starbucks offers military spouses the opportunity to transfer to a new location when a couple or family receive orders to relocate, which means despite navigating four moves in seven years, Harris has been able to transfer to six different stores to keep her career on track, advancing from barista to store manager. 

“I have a company that supports me in a way that means I can support my husband and I can grow as well. I find that so great,” Harris said. “You can go anywhere in the world and you have this support. It might be a different store or a different manager, but you still have that home away from home everywhere you go. This is your baseline. You don’t have to start from zero.” 

Ashley Mackey, an assistant store manager in Allen, Texas, served in the Navy for four years and is also a military spouse; her husband is a Marine.

“Transitioning out of the military and back into the civilian world was really hard,” Mackey said. “Most companies don’t want to hire you knowing you’re a military spouse. They kind of pass you over.” 

When she was getting ready to leave the Navy in 2017, Mackey attended a class for veterans and military personnel transitioning out of the Armed Services. That’s where she learned that, in addition to regular Starbucks benefits like access to health coverage, stock and savings and the opportunity to earn a tuition-free online bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University (ASU), the company also offers veteran and military spouse partners expanded benefits like Military Leave Pay, the ability to transfer stores when relocated and the opportunity to extend the ASU tuition reimbursement benefit to a spouse or child. Later, she attended a military spouse hiring fair at Camp Pendleton and decided to apply at Starbucks. Recruiters encouraged her to apply for a leadership position, based on her experience in the military, and a few weeks later she was hired as an assistant store manager.

In 2013, Starbucks committed to hiring 10,000 veterans and military spouses over the next five years. The company has now hired nearly 25,000 veterans and military spouses, many of whom wear a small, embroidered American flag on the right side of their green aprons to represent their service and commitment.

In addition to its commitment to hire veterans and military spouses, Starbucks has opened 55 Military Family Stores, which are located near major military bases and act as places of connection and support, and has plans to open hundreds more over the next few years. Each store also partners with nonprofit organizations to provide services for local veterans and their families.

“It just really stuck with me how much Starbucks appreciates every single employee to the point they don’t even say employee, they say partner,” Mackey said. “I really liked that, because the military is a huge family. We have each other’s backs. I thought that was really important. Working for Starbucks made transitioning out of the Navy a little easier. It was kind of the same environment.”

In honor of Military Spouse Appreciation Day on May 10, Harris and three other Starbucks military spouses who have developed keen moving super powers over the years offer their best advice to make relocation as painless as possible. 

Do some digital reconnaissance on your new hometown.

As soon as she finds out she’s moving, Harris turns to social media to investigate potential neighborhoods and their proximity to the military base, schools, dog parks, gyms, child care, researching crime rates and more, asking for recommendations and advice. “Social media is an amazing tool to get to know an area. People more likely to be honest than a chamber of commerce.” Harris said Facebook groups in particular have been immensely helpful in learning about a new place. Pro-tip for military spouses: Search for the base name plus the word spouses. “There’s never not been a spouses Facebook group in any placed we’ve moved to,” she said.

Make the move an adventure.

Harris said each time her husband gets orders to move, they have sat with their daughter, now 8, and had a conversation. “We don't want her to be blindsided. We tell her where we’re moving and show her a map of where we are and where we're going to be.” The next time they move their son, 4, will be old enough to join.

For the actual move, the family uses the drive as a mini vacation. “Make adventure before you have to unpack. It’s good to give yourselves a couple of days in the car to decompress from exhausting goodbyes. We plan fun hotel stops, swim in the pool and enjoy the journey. Almost like you can make it a little vacation.”

<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2018/military-spouses-only-constant-is-change/">Rachael Bialcak</a>, a store manager in Ridgecrest, California, has transferred to four stores in three different states in the five years she’s been married to her husband, who is in the Air Force. When they move, she makes two goodie baskets with favorite snacks and travel foods like Starburst, beef jerky and sunflower seeds – one for her car, and one for her husband’s car. Since they have two cars, they have to drive separately but together to their new home.

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“Food can be an emotional support. And I always bring my walkie talkies,” Bialcak said. “You could always use your phones, but we like to just randomly talk on our walkie talkies, usually something silly or a boost of encouragement. We usually drive eight or nine hours a day, and I don’t have cruise control in my car, so around the six-hour mark I will hear my husband’s voice on the walkie talkie saying, ‘How’s your foot doing?’ and I’ll answer, ‘Greeeeeat.’ It definitely helps.”

Buy the movers Gatorade and pizza. Because happy movers.

The military offers the option of having movers pack, move and unpack families who are relocating. “We always buy them pizza and Gatorade,” Harris said. “They always tell us no, but they always eat it. Be nice to them. Don't hover. Leave them alone. You want the packers and movers to be happy.”

Have loose timelines.

“You are never as packed as you think,” said Taylor Weisbecker, a store manager in Lumberton, North Carolina, whose husband is in the Army. For one move, they were supposed to leave at 9 a.m., but with packing and loose ends didn’t end up leaving until 5 p.m. “He had an appointment to make in our new place the next morning, so we drove through the night in separate vehicles. I had my puppy, Merle, in the front seat. I called my husband at one point, at about four in the morning, and said, ‘What are we doing?’ You can’t do anything but laugh. You need to have loose timelines. Everything needs to be loose.”

Attitude is everything.

“Don't look at it as packing just to unpack and do it all over again. It sounds super cliché, but just embrace it,” Harris said. “You have this opportunity to go somewhere and experience a new place. The average person doesn't get to do this. Wherever you're going is where you're meant to be. Well … for a little bit.”

It’s never too soon to declutter.

As soon as her family gets orders to relocate, Harris goes on a cleaning and decluttering spree to prepare her house for a move. “I clean everything. I rotate out clothes we don’t wear. I get rid of everything we don’t use – all those small things you accumulate without even thinking about. If it has dust on it, don’t bring it. The less you have to move, the easier it's going to be.”

Weisbecker said by the time you love where you’re living, your spouse is going to get orders. “Without a doubt, it always happens. You take a few years, meet people, get a groove, and then it’s time to go again,” she said. “But to put it in perspective. Now I have friends all over the United States. Friends are what makes a place great, so keep those relationships going.”

Work for a company that will move with you.

“Transitioning out of the military and back into the civilian world was really hard,” Mackey said. “And then most companies don’t want to hire you, knowing you’re a military spouse. They kind of pass you over. I was concerned it could have been a struggle, knowing both the veteran side and the military spouse side, but I am 100 percent happy with Starbucks. They have supported me in every way. They’ve let me be proud of serving. I get to have an apron that shows what I’ve done and wear it every day. Everyone is so welcoming.”

Bialcak agrees. “One thing I absolutely love is with our mission and values, I know wherever I go I will have the same kind of camaraderie I’ve had in every store. As military spouses, we can get complacent and think we have to put ourselves on hold. I love that Starbucks has given me an opportunity to invest in myself. I love my husband and will always be right by his side. He’s sacrificing so much, but it’s still so good that I can do something for myself, too. Wherever we move I know I have a little piece of home in every Starbucks, and it’s nice to have that consistent place to call home.”

Military spouse super power: making everywhere home - Starbucks Stories

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Military spouse super power: making everywhere home

﻿In honor of Military Spouse Appreciation Day on May 10, four Starbucks partners who have adapted to the unique challenges of life as military spouses offer their best advice for making relocation as painless as possible.

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