Starbucks Spreads the Spirit of Giving with CARE

Reprinted with permission from I am Powerful: The Magazine from CARE.

At Starbucks, commitment to social responsibility is not something new, or something we just talk about. It’s core to our business and reflected in our mission statement and guiding principles. Most importantly, our passion for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is not limited to one department or group of people. We are all considered partners at Starbucks, because we own the business, and that certainly includes our shared ownership of corporate citizenship.

At Starbucks, we define CSR as conducting business in ways that produce social, environmental and economic benefits for the communities in which we operate. We’ve partnered with CARE because we believe that to help move the dial on challenges facing the developing world, we need to work with organizations that have a proven track record at the grassroots level.

The connection to communities is key—at both ends of the supply chain. That means working with farmers and suppliers to create a more sustainable approach to coffee production and ensuring that we contribute positively in our retail communities.

But we think it’s equally important to raise awareness of global issues—such as publicizing and funding programs that support children of conflict and supporting clean water projects in Africa and East Asia.

We’re very excited about our project with CARE in Western Harrar, a coffee producing region in Ethiopia. We learned the community has a real desire to increase productive capacity and gain economic certainty in times of bad weather, such as drought. That feedback resulted in a multi-year effort to improve agricultural practices, increase access to irrigation and safe water, and find ways to connect with local markets. At its core, capacity building is about education and developing skills, which are fundamental principles of CARE’s work.

Our employees are very passionate about such efforts, and over the years, we have found ways of connecting them with projects around the world. In the coming months, employees throughout Europe will raise money to expand our impact in Harrar. These funds will support CARE’s complementary projects such as making schools girl-friendly with separate latrines and safe drinking water for all.

We also share CARE’s viewpoint on the importance of bringing women out of poverty, the focus of the I am Powerful campaign. That’s why we supported the first Vital Voices Pan-African Leadership Summit for Women and Girls in South Africa last January. This initiative recognizes the critical role that African women and girls can and must play in moving the continent forward socially, politically and economically. We hope it’s an important step to help women and girls emerge as a force for change across Africa.

Starbucks has used the spirit of giving during the holidays as a natural boost to our CSR programs. We’re both proud and excited to extend this spirit across the developing world year-round through our partnership with CARE. And we hope you’ll join in our efforts.