Since it first opened in the Philippines in 1997, Starbucks has donated unsold yet still fully edible pastries to non-government organizations (NGOs). This year, Starbucks aims to serve more communities with the help of the Philippine Food Bank Foundation (PFBF).
Just recently, Starbucks partnered with the PFBF to help a few Starbucks branches find partner NGOs and implement this FoodShare initiative. For their pilot run which lasted for 1 week, Starbucks and PFBF successfully delivered a total of 1,600 pastries to orphanages, school, and underserved communities near the six stores.
“To eat the products of Starbucks is something that these people could not have imagined. To everyone it is such a blessing. Thank you very much for sharing your products to us. God bless and we continue to pray for all the endeavors you are doing,” said Sr. Cherry Consimino from the Daughters of Virgin Mary Immaculate, one of the NGOs chosen to distribute the pastries.
“We decided to approach socially responsible food companies in the Philippines to allow us to distribute their soon-to-expire (SOTEX) but still very edible products to the malnourished and undernourished Filipinos belonging to the 21 percent of Filipino families who fall below the poverty line. We found them among squatter areas in urban districts, poor households in the rural areas, orphanages, children in public schools and feeding clinics run by both public and private agencies. Since we started distributing these food items two years ago, we have reached around 20,000 beneficiaries, equal to the number of pieces donated by Starbucks so far from November 2019 onwards.” said by Chairman Dr. Bernardo “Bernie” Villegas Foundation Header of PFBF.
With the success of their pilot run, Starbucks continues the partnership with the PFBF and has recently rolled out the initiative to 13 more stores in Southern Metro Manila including Las Piñas City, Muntinlupa City, and Parañaque City.
“We’ve always believed in using our scale for good and giving back to the communities we are a part of. For years, we have been donating our unsold pastries to the communities near our branches and now we plan to extend our aid further with the help of other organizations who share the same values as ours” shared Noey Lopez, president of Starbucks Philippines.
The FoodShare program is one of the many steps Starbucks is taking to fulfill its mission of inspiring and nurturing the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one community at a time.