It’s always good to hear that a big company like Starbucks is doing its part to help those in need. The coffee giant announced Tuesday that they will be donating all of their unsold food to those in need.
According to Starbucks, this is program was years in the making. The main issue was figuring out how to make it happen, without compromising the quality of the food.
“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,” Starbucks brand manager, Jane Maly, said in a press release. “The challenge was finding a way to preserve the food’s quality during delivery.”
The company has been donating its pastries for awhile, but it was the refrigerated food that was causing problems. The answer came in the form of a partnership with Food Donation Connection and Feeding America. Through this collaboration, Starbucks will be able to feed 5 million people during the first year.
Starbucks is passionate about helping those in need, while also reducing food waste in the U.S. We currently waste a whopping 70 billion pounds of food per year, according to Feeding America. Meanwhile, there are still millions of people going hungry.
Next time you go on a morning coffee run to your local Starbucks, you can think about the good they’re doing to help hungry Americans. Yet another reason to love everyone’s coffee obsession!