Starbucks: Helping Communities One Cup at a Time

Howard Schultz, Starbucks’ chief executive officer, changed the way the world drinks coffee. Now, he wants to change the way the world thinks about community service.

Starbucks Coffee Company announced in a news release Tuesday, it will donate a minimum of $100,000 in annual profits from two Starbucks stores in low-income areas back into those communities.

Starbucks is partnering with the Abyssinian Development Corporation (ADC) in Harlem and the Los Angeles Urban League (LAUL) in Crenshaw in what the company is calling its new community model, which is designed to help infuse money into communities through a public-private partnership.

In that model, profits from the Starbucks store on Crenshaw and Coliseum will go to the Los Angeles Urban League to improve education and job training for youth in the neighborhood.

The neighborhood has been hit hard by the recession, said Chris Strudwick-Turner, a spokeswoman for the league.

“We are looking for alternative revenue streams that aren’t based on giving,” said Strudwick-Turner.

The area used to have two Starbucks stores, said Strudwick-Turner, until Starbucks shut down one of the stores in the summer of 2009.

“That’s when Starbucks heard from this community,” she said.

Strudwick-Turner said Schultz personally visited the neighborhood and met with several Crenshaw High School students to find out how to help the community.

“Two of those students told him about a cheesecake business they started for their entrepreneurship class,” said Strudwick-Turner.

It was Schultz who suggested selling their cheesecakes at the Crenshaw-Coliseum store, and according to Strudwick-Turner, they ended up doing that during their senior year.

“He (Schultz) and Starbucks doubled down on Crenshaw,” said Strudwick-Turner.

Starbucks' investment in the community groups in Los Angeles and Harlem is a pilot program. If it is successful, according to a statement from the company, Starbucks will try it in other low-income areas where the company operates stores.

“It’s out of the box thinking,” said Strudwick-Turner. “A real commitment to the community.”