Starbucks Will Donate 100% Of Unused Food Because Employees Asked

Starbucks has just proven that it takes employee feedback seriously.

In a historic move for the Seattle-based coffee chain, the company just announced it will donate 100 percent of its perishable leftover food from its 7,600 U.S. stores to food banks through its new program called FoodShare. The program will launch about a year from now, and will be fully scaled to include all unused food by 2021.

What’s most interesting about Starbucks’ initiative is that it was spearheaded by its baristas who were fed up with the excessive food waste they witnessed every day.

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“Nobody should go to bed hungry. It’s not OK,” says Starbucks shift supervisor Teva Sakima who recalls when her parents were unable to provide enough food for her family. “Those feelings are hard to forget.”

We’ve previously written about how Starbucks is amazing at heeding customer feedback, but now they’ve shown that employee sentiment is equally as valued. Through surveys and direct emails to management, employees expressed their desire for a more aggressive approach to food donation.

Since 2010, the coffee chain’s pastries have been donated to food banks, but now FoodShare will allow for perishable food to be donated too.

“[Employees] had the courage to tell us that they just couldn’t stand this anymore,” Jane Maly, brand manager of Starbucks Food team, tells Mashable. “They challenged us for a solution, and we dedicated a team to it and all this time. Now, they can celebrate that their voices were heard.”

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Starbucks will give away all leftover salads, sandwiches and ready-to-eat meals, which were never previously donated because of food safety concerns about a lack of refrigeration. In a partnership with Food Donation Connection and Feeding America, those organizations will be responsible for picking up unused Starbucks food each day using refrigerated vans and dropping them off at food banks and rescue agencies.

Launching FoodShare has required years of investment into research and quality assurance by management to develop a refrigeration technique that allows them to give away perishable items.

We applaud Starbucks for moving with the tides of public opinion and responding to a social cause that no doubt brings them closer to customers and employees alike. It’s no secret that millennials, a large segment of their customers and employees, want to align themselves with brands that have a social and environmental mission.

It’s one thing to pay lip service to the problem of national hunger and another thing to actively engage in progressive research-based policies which require a commitment of time, money and resources. Bravo.