FoodShare program by Starbucks
In March Starbucks announced to donate ready-to-eat meals to food banks from its 7.600 company-operated stores in America through their new FoodShare program. Initially, this will be accomplished through an existing collaboration with Food Donation Connection and a new partnership with Feeding America.
FoodShare program
In the first year alone, Starbucks® FoodShare will be able to provide nearly five million meals to individuals and families in need of nourishing food. Starbucks intends to scale this program over the next five years and rescue 100 percent of its food available for donation from participating company-operated U.S. stores. That amounts to almost fifty million meals by 2021.
Starbucks recently established a partnership with Feeding America – the largest domestic hunger-relief and food-rescue nonprofit in the U.S. – to redistribute unsold food. Through this process, a refrigerated van will pick up food from Starbucks stores each day and deliver it to the Feeding America network.
The company’s new program could potentially expand with refrigerated vans making additional stops at other restaurants that join in the effort, increasing the impact exponentially.
Partners are the fundament to let Starbuck live up to their values
Since 2010, Starbucks stores have donated pastries through the support of Food Donation Connection (FDC), a service provider that collects pastries at the company’s stores after they can no longer be sold to customers. Starbucks worked with FDC to develop a safe process to add perishable food to the pick-up, which will be implemented in participating company-operated stores in the U.S. by this time next year.
“Like many of our social impact initiatives, the innovation and inspiration comes from our partners who are volunteering in and contributing to their communities,” said John Kelly, senior vice president, Starbucks Global Responsibility, Community and Public Policy. “They saw the need for us to do more, and find a way to use our scale to bring more nourishing and ready-to-eat meals to those in need.”
“When we thought about our vast store footprint across the U.S. and the impact we could make, it put a fire under us to figure out how to donate this food instead of throwing it away,” said Jane Maly, brand manager, Starbucks Food team. “The challenge was finding a way to preserve the food’s quality during delivery. We focused on maintaining the temperature, texture and flavor of the surplus food, so when it reached a person in need, they could safely enjoy it.”
Food share programms & education are a serious issue
Another serious issue is the fact that lots of seniors in the USA don’t have enough to eat. The National Council for Aging Care is dedicated to educating seniors and those who care for them. Read their article, The Facts Behind Senior Hunger: it addresses some of the causes, complications, and cures for senior food insecurity.
Website: Starbucks
