Starbucks Will Donate All Unsold Food To Charity

26-Apr-2016 - USA

Amid concerns about food wastage, Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) has announced a new plan to donate 100 percent of its unsold food to charity.

The world's largest specialty coffee retailer has launched FoodShare - a program to donate ready-to-eat meals to food banks - from its 7,600 company-operated stores in the U.S.

Starbucks hopes that its new plan will feed people who struggle with hunger and also divert food surplus from landfills, thus minimizing the company's environmental footprint. The company expects to inspire other companies to do the same.

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Initially, Starbucks will conduct the food donation program through an existing collaboration with Food Donation Connection and a new partnership with Feeding America.

With an estimated 70 billion pounds of food waste in America each year, according to Feeding America, Starbucks hopes to encourage other businesses to put a focus on food rescue.

In the first year alone, Starbucks FoodShare plans to be able to provide nearly 5 million meals to individuals and families in need of nourishing food.

The company intends to expand the program over the next five years and rescue 100 percent of its food available for donation from participating company-operated U.S. stores. That will amount to almost 50 million meals by 2021.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an estimated 15 million children live in households where adequate, nutritious food is limited. They are among the nearly 50 million Americans who are struggling to avoid hunger today.

Since 2010, Starbucks stores have donated pastries through the support of Food Donation Connection or FDC, a service provider that collects pastries at the company's stores after these can no longer be sold to customers.

For its new plan, Starbucks has partnered with FDC to develop a safe process to add perishable food to the pick-up. This will be implemented in participating company-operated stores in the U.S. by this time next year.

Starbucks noted that the new program could be potentially expanded with refrigerated vans making additional stops at other restaurants that join in the effort, increasing the impact exponentially. (dpa)

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