SEATTLE — The team at Starbucks has announced plans for a FoodShare program, which will donate ready-to-eat meals from its 7,600 company-operated stores in the U.S. to food banks across the country.
“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,” says Jane Maly, brand manager, Starbucks Food team. “The challenge was finding a way to preserve the food’s quality during delivery. We focused on maintaining the temperature, texture and flavour of the surplus food, so when it reached a person in need, they could safely enjoy it.”
Through a partnership with Feeding America, the largest domestic hunger-relief and food-rescue nonprofit in the U.S., Starbucks plans to redistribute the unsold food daily using a refrigerated van.
In the first year alone, Starbucks FoodShare will be able to provide nearly 5 million meals to individuals and families in need. The company plans to scale this program over the next five years and rescue 100 per-cent of its food available for donation, which will amounts to almost 50 million meals by 2021.