Beginning Dec. 1, Starbucks is bringing&nbsp; moments of joy to customers and our communities through: the return of Irish Cream Cold Brew at stores in the U.S.; free coffee to front-line responders all month long in December; more than 2.5 million prizes available to win with the Starbucks For Life game; and in honor of Giving Tuesday and World AIDS Day, The Starbucks Foundation is donating $500,000 to the Global Fund to fight AIDS with (RED).

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Irish Cream Cold Brew is back

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Beginning Tuesday, December 1, Starbucks customers can enjoy the returning favorite Irish Cream Cold Brew. Back for <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/introducing-irish-cream-cold-brew/">its second holiday season</a>, the beverage is made with Starbucks® Cold Brew coffee and Irish cream syrup over ice, topped with a frothy cap of vanilla sweet cream cold foam like a layer of fresh snow and a dusting of cocoa powder. It is available at Starbucks stores across the U.S. and Canada for a limited time, while supplies last.

The&nbsp;<a href="https://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.starbucks.com%2Fcoffeehouse%2Fmobile-apps&amp;data=02%7C01%7CAlli.Colzani%40edelman.com%7Cd44acb2eb5c0476bed4e08d866352b72%7Cb824bfb3918e43c2bb1cdcc1ba40a82b%7C0%7C0%7C637371725834401803&amp;sdata=TNurxBGe4Bn8arZ4pZuEV2wkQzIShSY6BSkEL9Odqyk%3D&amp;reserved=0">Starbucks app</a> is the best way for customers to locate a store, order ahead and use contactless payment, and determine the most convenient pickup option, including in-store, at the door, drive-thru, or curbside pickup where available. In locations with in-store pickup, there will be a limited number of customers inside at one time and floor markers and signage will promote social distancing. Customers can also enjoy their favorites including the new Irish Cream Cold Brew without leaving home through&nbsp;Starbucks® Delivers on Uber Eats. To check restrictions and&nbsp;availability, customers can visit&nbsp;the Uber Eats app (menu limited).

Starbucks recognizes front-line responders with free coffee all month long

In response to the recent rise in COVID-19 cases and to recognize the significant efforts of the front-line responder and health care community, Starbucks announced today that it will offer a free tall brewed coffee (hot or iced) to front-line responders at participating U.S. Starbucks stores throughout the month of December to show appreciation for those keeping our communities safe during COVID-19. Read more <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2020/navigating-through-covid-19/">here</a>.

Starbucks for Life returns for the sixth year

The Starbucks for Life game is back for its sixth year. From December 1 through January 4, Starbucks Rewards members can play for the chance to win more than 2.5 million prizes ranging from free coffee and exclusive Starbucks merchandise, to the grand prize of Starbucks for Life!

Additionally,&nbsp;Starbucks&nbsp;is offering&nbsp;new&nbsp;prizes&nbsp;this year&nbsp;including:&nbsp;Bose QuietComfort® Earbuds, a Starbucks for Life limited edition&nbsp;puzzle from Ravensburger®, Alaska Airlines® roundtrip travel vouchers and local food bank donations through Feeding America.

Starbucks Rewards members can earn plays by making a qualifying purchase using the Starbucks app or Starbucks card at participating Starbucks stores in the U.S. Visit <a href="http://www.starbucksforlife.com/">www.starbucksforlife.com</a> for more details, or visit&nbsp;<a href="https://www.starbucks.com/account/create">here&nbsp;to sign up for Starbucks Rewards.</a>&nbsp;And as a special bonus, your first&nbsp;play&nbsp;is on us!&nbsp;*

Giving back for Giving Tuesday and World AIDS Day

On December 1, in recognition of Giving Tuesday and World AIDS Day, The Starbucks Foundation will donate $500,000 to the Global Fund to help fight AIDS with (RED). The donation will support the Global Fund’s COVID-19 Response, which aims to strengthen health systems and mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on AIDS programs. These funds will help protect the extraordinary gains the global health community has made in the fight against AIDS and ensure continued access to life-saving treatment and services.

This donation builds on Starbucks prior efforts to support the global fight against AIDS. Since Starbucks partnership with (RED) began in 2008, Starbucks has donated more than $16 million to help fight AIDS. <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/the-starbucks-foundation-donation-helps-red-fight-against-aids-covid-19/">Read more here</a> and to learn more about how you can get involved this World AIDS Day, visit <a href="http://www.red.org">www.red.org</a>.

Starbucks continues to take actions to protect the <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2020/what-customers-need-to-know-about-starbucks-response-to-covid-19/">health and well-being of our customers and partners</a> (employees), and to control the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus) in accordance with the expert guidance of the CDC and local public health authorities.&nbsp;These actions include asking customers to wear facial coverings and follow social distancing when visiting our stores, partner precautions and enhanced cleaning measures. Click <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2020/what-customers-need-to-know-about-starbucks-response-to-covid-19/">here for an at-a-glance overview</a> &nbsp;of what you need to know about your local store, Starbucks partners and the community.

To read more about Starbucks holiday news and highlights, <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/2020-starbucks-holiday-highlights/">read more on Starbucks Stories here</a>.

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* NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. LEGAL RESIDENTS OF THE 50 UNITED STATES (D.C.) 18 AND OLDER AND WHO ARE MEMBERS OF THE STARBUCKS REWARDS LOYALTY PROGRAM AT THE TIME OF ENTRY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. Starbucks Partners (employees) are not eligible to win prizes. Participating stores only. Promotion ends 1/4/21. For Official Rules, how to enter without purchase, prizes, and odds, visit <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.starbucksforlife.com&amp;d=DwQGaQ&amp;c=pBpWB3g5lxYDsRBNURdZrQ&amp;r=BUXnsjr738FuvTANqNRXQtHG2HD4ythXhvP-19v9rGQ&amp;m=ToKnbn6ddutGJJLIMsJZkRe0uwsWmLpzG4DN9uB-2H8&amp;s=VJWBuvhRK0JuoWd1SKZja6kcE0m3FGD0G5gfF8sBb3M&amp;e=">https://www.starbucksforlife.com</a>. Sponsor: Starbucks Corporation, 2401 Utah Ave. S, Seattle, WA 98134.

Starbucks for Life means the winner will receive a daily credit for 30 years for one free food or beverage item at participating Starbucks stores in the U.S. Excludes alcohol.

Starbucks for a Year, 6 Months, 3 Months, or 1 Month will be fulfilled as a daily credit for one free food item or standard menu beverage during the time period specified, which can be redeemed at participating stores.

Entrants can receive a maximum of 2 plays per day plus bonus opportunities to earn additional plays.

Game plays may be earned on eligible transactions at a participating Starbucks&nbsp;store. Purchases of alcohol, Starbucks Cards and Starbucks Card reloads are excluded. See&nbsp;<a href="https://www.starbucks.com/rewards/terms">starbucks.com/terms</a>&nbsp;for details.

December brings return of Starbucks Irish Cream Cold Brew, free coffee for front-line responders, and more - Starbucks Stories

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December brings return of Starbucks Irish Cream Cold Brew, free coffee for front-line responders, and more

Announcing the return of Irish Cream Cold Brew and Starbucks for Life, free coffee for front-line responders in December, and The Starbucks Foundation donation in honor of World AIDS Day.

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Irish Cream Cold Brew, free coffee for front-line responders, and more

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On World AIDS Day, as Starbucks partners with (RED) to raise awareness and funds to end the disease, a Starbucks store manager is preparing to spend a year in sub-Saharan Africa caring for those with HIV.&nbsp;

Inside Ryan Wooten’s West Hollywood, Calif., apartment is one of his most poignant possessions: a big black box that once held a Prada messenger bag he bought to spoil himself, after he was diagnosed with HIV. Now, it holds dozens of empty prescription bottles – six years’ worth of Stribild and more recently, Biktarvy – reminders of the medication he’s used to keep himself alive since he was 23 years old.

“When the bottle’s empty, it’s powerless,” Wooten explains. “And it made me feel a sense of accomplishment. I’m alive for another month. I outlived another bottle of pills.” &nbsp; 

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Wooten, a Starbucks store manager in Los Angeles, is the beneficiary of a public health success story. Considered an almost-certain death sentence in the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, can now be suppressed with a once-a-day pill regimen – to the point where Wooten’s viral load is undetectable and not even transmittable.

Still, there’s so much more work left to do. Approximately 38 million people around the world are living with HIV; an estimated 15 million don’t have access to life-saving antiretroviral medication. Last year, approximately 1.7 million people were newly diagnosed with HIV, and 770,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses.

“I appreciate only having to take one pill; I feel grateful for living in 2019 instead of the 1980s,” Wooten says. “That’s why I did the AIDS Walk (in Los Angeles) this year. I’ve walked every year since 2013. I walk for the people that can’t walk. I walk for the people who aren’t here anymore.”

On World AIDS Day, Starbucks is proud to celebrate the progress that’s been made and continue to work towards ending AIDS. For the 12th consecutive year, Starbucks is partnering with <a href="https://www.red.org/">(RED)</a> to raise awareness about the global AIDS epidemic and directly fund efforts to end the disease. For every latte sold Dec. 1 in its U.S. and Canada stores, Starbucks will give 25 cents to the Global Fund to help fight AIDS.

Since 2008, Starbucks has generated more than $15.5 million in donations to help fight AIDS with (RED). The money supports HIV/AIDS programs, which provide HIV testing, counseling, treatment, prevention and education services. 

<a href="https://www.theglobalfund.org/en/">The Global Fund</a> – a collaboration between governments, businesses and health organizations – works to accelerate the end of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics. It raises and invests nearly $4 billion annually to support programs run by local experts in countries and communities most in need.

On last year’s World AIDS Day, Starbucks donations were directed to the Rwandan Ministry of Health to help some of the communities from which Starbucks sources coffee. One of the grantees was the&nbsp;<a href="http://imbutofoundation.org/">Imbuto Foundation</a>, which works with young mothers in remote areas, many of whom are living with HIV and face a stigma as a result of their status.

The organization brings the women together in peer-led support groups that offer empowerment through community, job training and access to sexual reproductive health education – particularly important in Rwanda, where only half of young women have comprehensive knowledge on how to prevent HIV.

Of the millions living with HIV around the world, 68 percent are living in sub-Saharan African countries like Rwanda, according to statistics compiled by <a href="https://www.unaids.org/en">UNAIDS</a>, a United Nations agency working to end AIDS by 2030. Globally, young women (aged 15-24) have a 60 percent higher infection rate than young men of the same age, and in sub-Saharan Africa, young women are twice as likely to acquire HIV as young men.

“We think about our bigger mission, to empower and nurture the human spirit, and that has to happen wherever we are, wherever we can touch,” says Kelly Goodejohn, Starbucks director of ethical sourcing and traceability, who visited the Imbuto Foundation in May to see the impact of the company’s donations. “Rwanda is core to our coffee history and legacy. We’re connected to Rwanda. This partnership with (RED) is part of living our mission and values.”

Wooten, the Starbucks store manager, says support is critical after an HIV diagnosis, wherever you live in the world. 

Now 30, Wooten remembers all the details of the night he was diagnosed. It was Nov. 19, 2013, 8:59 p.m., at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. He remembers the roller coaster of emotions after the doctor told him the news – crying, seeing red, frantically asking the doctor to retest him. And he remembers the doctor’s compassion.

After he finally calmed down, Wooten told the doctor, “You’re not going to give me a death sentence and not buy me some ice cream. Buy me ice cream now.”

They drove to McDonald’s together in the doctor’s car. 

“It’s so juvenile, but it was in that little moment, eating a vanilla ice cream cone, that I realized I’m still alive,” Wooten says. “I don’t know what’s going to happen next but I’m here and I’m alive, and tomorrow will happen, and the next day will happen.”

After his diagnosis, Wooten learned more about HIV – specifically that he could overcome it. 

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&nbsp;“We’re at the point where somebody who is diagnosed with HIV relatively early has the same life expectancy as someone who doesn’t have it,” says Julie Dombrowski, associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington, and the deputy director of the Public Health Seattle/King County HIV/STD program. 

The greatest challenge now, Dombrowski says, is making sure that everyone who needs medication has access to it. Most of the people who aren’t getting it in the U.S. have complicating factors, such as homelessness, mental illness or substance use disorders. The other battlefront is stigma, Dombrowski says, which prevents some people from getting diagnosed or even seeking treatment.

The urgent goal for the international health community is a “90-90-90” target: that 90 percent of all people living with HIV will know their status; 90 percent of those people will be receiving antiretroviral medication; and 90 percent of those people will be virally suppressed.

“The world has made tremendous progress in battling HIV – in expanding access to services, reducing new infections and advancing science and technology so that antiretrovirals serve as both treatment and prevention in one pill,” says Luisa Engel, Chief Impact Officer at (RED). “But we won’t reach the finish line without increased funding and focus at a global scale. It’s precisely why it’s so incredible to have iconic partners like Starbucks who are raising cash and awareness for the issue impacting their communities – from baristas in California to coffee growers in Rwanda.”

Wooten credits the <a href="https://lalgbtcenter.org/">Los Angeles LGBT Center</a>, one of the premier support centers for LGBT people in the world, for guiding him through the dark early days of his diagnosis – “I have a million stories of crying,” he says. They connected him to a counselor, a nutritionist and a life coach, and provided free medication. Those people and others there – the doctor who diagnosed him is now one of his closest friends – helped him establish a routine, helped guide him towards a normal life.

Now, Wooten is giving back. He volunteers weekly as a facilitator at the LGBT Center, working with the area’s large population of homeless youth, some of whom are just coming out as gay or transitioning, or who have HIV but haven’t told anyone yet. 

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Wooten himself was homeless for a while when he was 18 years old, right before he was hired as a Starbucks barista. He lashed out and lived recklessly, he says, while trying to find his identity; he can relate to the kids at the center. 

Starting next year, he’ll take an even bigger step. Starbucks offers partners who have been with the company for 10 years the option of taking a sabbatical. Wooten is going to spend his on a one-year volunteer assignment with the Peace Corps in Namibia, another sub-Saharan African country, where approximately 200,000 people live with HIV. There, beginning in April, he’ll support the AIDS fight by working with local public health officials and caring for HIV-positive Namibians. 

Wooten believes he was selected specifically because of his disease, because of how it changed him after his diagnosis. It shaped new perspectives, gave him a crash course on one of the biggest public health crises in the world and forced him to live and lead with empathy. Having HIV has caused him to see the world differently, Wooten says, and he’s chosen to turn it into a positive experience. 

Wooten’s Starbucks store is on Sunset Boulevard, near the Hollywood Walk of Fame, across the street from movie and television production studios. But tent encampments are also on both sides of the street next to his store. His customers include movie stars, cast members of big television shows, local news anchors and people experiencing homelessness. 

How does he connect with that broad spectrum of humanity? How will he live a meaningful life, in ways big and small? 

“It’s crazy to think that the thing I thought would kill me or make me a weak person is the thing that’s making me strong,” Wooten says. “I’m helping change the world, I’m going to make a difference, and the reason I’m doing it is because of my status.” 

How a Starbucks store manager is working to fight AIDS around the globe - Starbucks Stories

How a Starbucks store manager is working to fight AIDS around the globe

On World AIDS Day, a Starbucks store manager is preparing to spend a year in sub-Saharan African caring for those with HIV.

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A Starbucks store manager is working to fight AIDS around the globe

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