The Starbucks Foundation’s 2019 Origin Grants to Empower Women and Girls

Starbucks has a long history of investment in coffee, tea and cocoa producing communities to address their most critical needs, with a recognition that an investment in women and girls leads to greater impact for families and communities as a whole. On International Women’s Day 2018, The Starbucks Foundation announced a new goal to empower 250,000 women and girls in origin communities by 2025.

To reach that goal, The Starbucks Foundation is supporting programs around women’s leadership, access to finance, and healthy homes. These projects aim to break down barriers to education, promote clean water and sanitation (WASH), and create economic opportunities for women and girls. Since 2018, The Starbucks Foundation has made 11 grants totaling nearly $4 million to organizations working with coffee and tea communities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. These grant recipients include:

Malala Fund | Global, 2018-2020
To support girls’ education through advocacy, amplifying young women's voices and expanding the Gulmakai Network of education activists. This includes the selection of Bondita Acharaya of the Purva Bharati Educational Trust as a Gulmakai Champion, whose project will enroll out-ofschool girls, train girls as education advocates, and work with tea plantations to improve learning outcomes for 3,200 girls in Assam, India.

Lutheran World Relief | Colombia, 2018-2021
To empower women in Tolima, Colombia through improved sanitation and greater economic opportunity. The project will strengthen local women’s associations, increase access to finance through micro-loans, and promote women’s leadership in cooperatives through gender-integration training, ultimately reaching 3,000 people.

Instituto del Café de Costa Rica | Costa Rica, 2018-2019
To support safe places for children of migrant coffee pickers to stay during the day with educational games and tools that promote improved hygiene and well-being at Casas de la Alegria. ICAFE and local partners developed a Health Week for over 500 girls and boys, which included various activities and workshop to promote improved hygiene and well-being for the children and their families.

Barefoot College | India, 2018-2021
To promote women’s economic leadership and wellness in tea communities in India, particularly among seasonal workers. The program will empower women workers with personal skills development and training on technical skills in honey and solar devices production and scale, and also encourage self-care, nutrition and sanitation through greater awareness and better access to facilities, aiming to directly benefit over 3,000 community members.

UNICEF Ethical Tea Partnership | India, 2018-2021
To improve the lives of women and children in Assam’s tea communities. The Ethical Tea Partnership and UNICEF will promote health, nutrition, education, water, sanitation, and hygiene, while also empowering adolescent girls and boys with knowledge, skills, and support.

CARE | Indonesia, 2018-2020
To support women and girls’ economic empowerment and water/sanitation/hygiene (WASH) programs in West Java, Indonesia. The project will engage 1,750 individuals in a tea smallholder village; providing capacity building in women’s leadership, financial literacy and WASH practices as well as greater access to financial services

Lutheran World Relief | Indonesia, 2018-2021
To support women-led community health and hygiene programs for 2,100 households in Indonesian coffee-producing villages. Trainings will focus on improving the capacities of women in leadership roles in addressing and advocating on water, health, and sanitation issues
in their communities, including within existing community governance structures.

Roger Federer Foundation | Malawi, 2018-2021
To support quality early childhood education, including water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programs, in community based childcare centers in vulnerable villages bordering tea communities in Malawi. This project includes improvements and educational programming reaching 1,600 children in 10 preschools, as well as empowerment of management committees and caregivers.

Days for Girls International | Rwanda, 2018-2019
To build leadership and income-earning potential of women farmers in Rwanda by creating access to washable menstrual supplies, entrepreneurial opportunities, and community health education training. The establishment of sewing enterprises to locally produce the supplies and a training program to mentor women to serve as community health educators, allow women to fully participate in their communities with confidence.

Send a Cow | Rwanda, 2018-2021
To empower 15,400 people in coffee growing communities in Rwanda with the knowledge and skills to live healthily and sustainably from the land. The project will improve farm production, access to water, sanitation and home hygiene, and support social and economic empowerment leading to healthier homes and families.

World Relief | Rwanda, 2018-2021
To empower 12,960 women to thrive through safe relationships, healthy homes, and clean drinking water and economic opportunity in Rwanda. The program includes training 1,110 women in understanding government policies, strategic priorities, and women’s rights, and establishing train-the-trainer groups and village level women’s leadership forums to build confidence and awareness at the community and national levels.