Helping the people and places that grow our coffee.
Supporting social programs in coffee communities isn't just about doing the right thing. It's also the right thing to do for our business – helping those communities to thrive and keep growing high-quality coffee for the future. We believe our investment of resources to help sustain coffee farms and strengthen surrounding communities is mutually beneficial.
There are a number of ways we do this, including our support of the following non-governmental organizations and programs:
Projects in coffee-growing communities.
Through some of our coffee contracts Starbucks invested $1.6 million in social projects in coffee-growing communities during fiscal 2008. The funds benefited more than 186,000 people in 10 countries where our coffee is grown.
The projects range from helping to fund schools and health clinics to infrastructure projects that serve the farmers, cooperatives and their surrounding communities.
Focusing on health for farmers of San Miguel Duenas, Guatemala.
In the coffee-growing community of San Miguel Duenas, many farmers share a sense of loyalty to Estuardo Falla Castillo and his company, Entre Volcanes, S.A.
Entre Volcanes owns San Miguel Mill, a place where local farmers come to process and sell their freshly harvested coffee cherries – and where they receive some of the highest prices paid in the surrounding area. Entre Volcanes is an approved C.A.F.E. Practices supply chain and produces coffee used in several Starbucks offerings, such as Guatemala Casi Cielo®.
There is another benefit associated with San Miguel Mill. It is the site of the area’s only health clinic, staffed by Dr. Isabel Rivera. Since the clinic opened in 2002, Rivera has dispensed treatment and medications free-of-charge to thousands of farmers, workers and their families, some of whom are employed on Falla’s farm, El Tempixque, and others who run their own small neighboring farms.
The clinic is unique because of the way it is funded. The facility, known as Clinica Rural Arturo Falla, opened with a $13,000 startup stake from Starbucks and $10,000 from a Special Reserve Award, a Starbucks coffee coffee-quality competition won by Entre Volcanes in 2001.
Every year Starbucks provides funding to keep the clinic stocked with medicines and to pay Dr. Rivera. The other operating costs are paid by Estuardo Falla. In 2008, Starbucks and Falla both contributed $34,000 toward the clinic’s expenses to provide both preventive and necessary medical care.
Special coffees with special rewards.
Starbucks® Black Apron Exclusives® program was designed to recognize some of the most extraordinary and unique coffees in the world. Typically limited in quantity, these coffees are often discovered in small, remote areas of Africa, Latin America and Asia Pacific. Starbucks awarded $15,000 to the farming community that produced the coffee for use for a targeted project that will serve to improve the sustainability of its farms, the village or the local environment. Since launching the Black Apron Exclusives® program, Starbucks has featured 18 coffees, including three that were introduced in fiscal 2008.
