As Starbucks turns 50, Michelle Burns, who leads coffee at Starbucks, and her team are working to ensure the best outcomes for coffee farmers and the land it’s grown on.

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Michelle Burns remembers vividly the trip she took to Colombia in 2018. As the sun broke through the clouds, she trekked into a rugged mountain region in Caldas, one of the country’s main coffee-producing regions – a two-and-a-half-hour ascent up through steep terrain, then down into a valley. There, she and her group were greeted by about 15 local farmers, mostly young people who’d returned home and recently started coffee farming after decades of armed conflicts in the area had subsided.

“They shared their stories with us,” recalls Burns, now Starbucks <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/leadership/michelle-burns/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">executive vice president of Global Coffee, Tea and Cocoa</a>, “stories about conflict and all the challenges that happened in Colombia, stories of moving away after losing family members who were in coffee farming.

“They’d come back to reclaim that land. And we asked them, ‘What can we do to help?’”

The moment – and her subsequent takeaway: “the incredible possibility to positively impact the lives and support the next generation of farmers” – led to the Starbucks Colombia Initiative, called “Granos de Esperanza” (grains of hope), a kind of real-time agricultural and economic innovation lab.

Today, 100 local farmers in Nariño, Colombia are learning the latest climate education, soil and fertilizer analysis techniques and coffee cultivation and business practices. They’re applying innovations gained at Hacienda Alsacia, the Starbucks research farm in Costa Rica. And they’re incorporating new technologies like eco-pulpers that use less water in the coffee-production process.

The moment also widened Burns’ perspective on the bean-to-cup journey and drove home the importance and urgency of making sure that Starbucks is committed to doing the work and making the investments to ensure a sustainable future of coffee for all, especially for those who grow it and the land they work on. 

To that end, Starbucks has opened <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2021/starbucks-opens-farmer-support-center-in-brazil-for-coffee-growing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10 coffee farmer support centers</a> around the globe, the latest in Brazil; committed to provide 100 million healthy coffee trees to coffee farmers by 2025; provided access to low-interest loans to coffee farmers in regions where traditional banks are not an option; and piloted programs in Guatemala to help coffee-farming families diversify their income streams.

A commitment to take less and give more to the planet

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Starbucks has also <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2021/starbucks-announces-coffee-specific-environmental-goals/#:~:text=In%202020%20Starbucks%20committed%20to,50%25%2C%20both%20by%202030." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">set goals</a> to achieve carbon-neutral green coffee and conserve water usage in green coffee processing by 50 percent, both by 2030.

“That is bold,” Burns says. “The effort that needs to happen on methodology and technology and bringing all the pieces together, it’s somewhat uncharted territory. We’re very ambitiously out there, not yet having all the answers, but trying to find the solutions.”

Specifically, Starbucks is focusing on reducing its carbon and water footprints at “the first ten feet” – starting on the farms – and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by equipping farmers with precision agronomy tools, promoting and distributing climate-resistant tree varietals and protecting and restoring at-risk forests in key coffee landscapes.

As part of its water conservation strategy, Starbucks is investing in ecological wet mills that can save up to 80 percent of water in coffee processing. To date, Starbucks has helped install 12,000 such new mills around the world.

“You think about the magnitude of water scarcity around the globe. Are there potential ways to innovate and identify and use equipment that is better for the environment? There are over 200,000 wet mills currently in our supply chain. We’ve only scratched the surface on scaling this technology.

“I am seeing the possibilities, and I get excited about the overall positive impact we can have. I feel the best knowing we’ll never hold this as our own. We’re working with others in the industry, so this work is in service to the entire coffee sector – and hopefully beyond, into the broader agricultural industry – because we’re committed to build on open sources of sharing.”

Burns still has the large handmade red ceramic mug that a fellow partner (employee) gifted her 26 years ago, her first at Starbucks. When it’s cradled in her hands, she feels familiarity and friendship, comfort and warmth. Like so many others who have a coffee ritual, this mug is part of hers.

These days, when she drinks coffee out of this mug, she’s reminded of the need to slow down and savor the moment.

For 50 years, coffee has been the core of Starbucks, and Burns always comes back to that, especially as a highly visible leader during intensely complex times – a climate crisis, crop diseases like coffee rust, a highly charged political landscape, an aging farmer population, supply chain disruptions due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, labor and staffing shortages.

“It is important to stay true to the heart and the mission of our company, and the love for coffee, and your experience with it.

“I believe that by honoring our heritage, staying true to where and why we started as a company – strongly rooted in our mission and values, with an aspiration to make sure that in the end, we're giving more than we're taking – then we can really go after the biggest, boldest aspirations.”

That thinking led Starbucks to develop one of the coffee industry’s first ethical sourcing standards, <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2020/cafe-practices-starbucks-approach-to-ethically-sourcing-coffee/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices</a>, a verification program that allows Starbucks to ensure it gets high-quality, ethically sourced coffee while also gaining insights into the challenges faced by farmers and supply chain operations in the more than 30 different coffee-producing countries around the world – and then to share that knowledge back.

C.A.F.E. Practices measures more than 200 criteria – as scored by an independent third-party auditor – in the categories of economic transparency, environmental leadership, social responsibility and quality. Starbucks pays premiums above commercial market price to help ensure coffee farmer profitability, and also financially rewards supply chains that reach the highest performance levels.

That commitment to stay rooted in Starbucks mission and values continues to drive Burns in her work – especially as a woman leading in the coffee industry – whether it’s planet-first initiatives, farmer support or increasing awareness among customers of the entire coffee-making process.

“You just think about the magnitude,” Burns says. “How many hands actually touch the coffee along the way, how many miles are there from a field to one of our stores? It’s incredible… That has to be integrated into all the ways we work, think and act. We work in support of 400,000 farmers, just like we work in support of 400,000 partners.”

Given that Starbucks buys about 800 million pounds of coffee every year, or about 5 percent of the world’s coffee, Burns says, “the potential to positively impact the lives and livelihoods of farmers and their communities is tremendous.

“People have watched us working hard to do the right things, find solutions and take great care of farmers and their communities, for decades. They grant us an amount of trust and opportunity to help lead the discussion around ensuring a sustainable future of coffee for all. That is a privilege as well as a responsibility, but it's so important that we follow through. “When I think about that challenge, and I look at what is required, and the journey ahead, my sense is, we must. We must be brave, and we must lead, and set out aspirations that are bold to take the path that can create a better future for those that grow coffee and their families, and to ensure that the beauty and art and ritual that's coffee remains in all of our cultures, for decades and decades to come.”

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Smiling woman in flowered shirt holding mug that says "Colombia"

As Starbucks turns 50, Michelle Burns, who leads coffee at Starbucks, and her team are working to ensure the best outcomes for coffee farmers and the land it’s grown on.

Working to create a more sustainable future of coffee for all

Historias-en

https://historias.starbucks.com/en-es/stories/2021/working-to-create-a-more-sustainable-future-of-coffee-for-all-2/

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Coffee is at our core. We are committed to sourcing coffee responsibly, for the betterment of people and planet, so we can ensure a <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2019/building-a-sustainable-future-for-coffee-together/">sustainable future of coffee</a>.

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ETHICALLY SOURCED COFFEE

Goal: Committed to 100% ethically sourced coffee in partnership with Conservation International From 2015 to 2019, 99% of Starbucks coffee was verified as ethically sourced as measured by C.A.F.E. Practices, our ethical sourcing verification program developed in partnership with Conservation International. Measuring farms against economic, social and environmental criteria, the C.A.F.E. Practices program is designed to promote transparent and sustainable coffee growing practices while also helping protect the well-being of coffee farmers and workers, their families and their communities.

In FY20, due to restrictions caused by COVID-19, auditing teams were unable to complete all the necessary in-person, on-farm audits of our coffee production, resulting in expiration for farms whose verification ended in FY20 and were not audited. This resulted in 98.6% of our coffee coming in FY20 from C.A.F.E. Practice-verified farms.

50 Million to Date, 10 Million in FY20

Goal: Provide 100 million trees to farmers by 2025 In FY20, we distributed 10 million trees to farmers in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador. Over the past five years as part of our 10-year, 100 million-tree commitment, Starbucks has donated nearly 50 million coffee trees to farmers. These new trees are bred to be resistant to coffee rust, a disease associated with climate change, and they’re replacing trees declining in productivity, which can, in turn, help farmers improve the quality and yields of their harvest and improve their revenue.

Nine Farmer Support Centers, 200,000 Farmers Trained

Goal: Train 200,000 farmers by the end of 2020 More than 40,000 farmers were trained in FY20, enabling us to reach our goal of training 200,000 farmers by the end of 2020. Starbucks operates nine Farmer Support Centers worldwide, where agronomists and quality experts work alongside coffee farmers – whether they sell to Starbucks or not – to share tools and information to help increase the productivity, quality and profitability of coffee on their farms and improve their livelihoods. In FY20, due to COVID-19 restrictions, we incorporated online training tools and resources to continue these efforts while supporting the health and safety of our partners, suppliers, farmers and their communities.&nbsp;

Goal: Strengthen our coffee communities In FY20, Starbucks launched a new initiative in Guatemala focused on providing safe spaces for local and migrant workers’ children to continue their education during the coffee harvest season. Five new centers opened during the 2020-21 harvest season, with co-investment from coffee suppliers and implementation by FUNCAFE and Coffee Care. Starbucks also established a $100,000 Capital Improvement fund to support initial and on-going childcare center improvements, along with preparing childcare center locations to open in a safe and welcoming way.

&nbsp;$42.9 Million to Date

$2.8 Million in FY20

Goal: $50 million in farmer loans by the end of 2020 The Starbucks Global Farmer Fund was founded to improve supply chain resiliency and ensure a long-term supply of coffee by addressing the unmet financing needs of farmers. As of FY20, we have invested $42.9 million in the Fund, partnering with <a href="https://rootcapital.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Root Capital</a> and <a href="https://www.responsability.com/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ResponsAbility</a> to provide coffee businesses and farmers with access to low-interest loans in regions where traditional banks are not an option due to high interest rates. Loans allow farmers to plant new trees and improve their infrastructure.&nbsp;

In addition, we have continued our Emergency Farmer Relief Fund for a second year to further support farmers who were negatively impacted by low global coffee prices. These secondary payments go directly to smallholder farmers in Central America to subsidize their income, helping to offset low prices compared to cost of production. Although market conditions were slightly better than in FY19, we distributed more than $2.8 million to farmers in Guatemala and Nicaragua in FY20.&nbsp;

STARBUCKS DIGITAL TRACEABILITY

Launched for Consumers, Testing Among Farmers

Goal: Create connection between coffee farmers and coffee consumers; empower farmers and support coffee farm communities As a continuation of our ethical sourcing commitment, in FY20 we launched the new <a href="https://traceability.starbucks.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Starbucks Digital Traceability</a> web tool, which provides a way for customers to engage directly with their coffee and learn more about its journey, from bean to cup. Customers can use the traceability tool to scan a bag of their favorite coffee at a Starbucks store, discover the global origin of their beans, and read about the farmers who grow it. We are continuing to explore how digital tools can empower farmers and best support farming communities by leveraging the traceability technology and platform to give farmers the ability to trace their coffee beans, so they can see where their beans go and the final product they become. In FY20 in Rwanda, we piloted a call-in platform for farmers to get agronomy tips and green coffee price information for their local markets. More than 19,000 farmers used the service over three months.

Tea: 99.7% in FY20, Cocoa: 100% in FY20

In FY20, we sourced 99.7% of tea from Rainforest Alliance certified farms. For cocoa-based beverage ingredients, 100% of cocoa beans are ethically sourced from either COCOA Practices-verified supply chains or UTZ certified farms. The UTZ program is now part of the Rainforest Alliance. We continue to strengthen our approach, programs and partnerships for sustainably sourcing tea and cocoa.

Read more and see fiscal 2021 updates on our progress in the full report.

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We are committed to sourcing coffee responsibly, for the betterment of people and planet, so we can ensure a sustainable future of coffee.

Starbucks 2020 Global Environmental and Social Impact Report: Coffee

https://historias.starbucks.com/en-es/stories/2021/gesi-report-2020-coffee-3/

Coffee is at our core. We are committed to sourcing coffee responsibly, for the betterment of people and planet, so we can ensure a sustainable future of coffee.

2020 Report: Coffee

In 2020 Starbucks committed to a resource-positive future, formalizing environmental goals to cut its carbon, water, and waste footprints by half.

As a progression against those goals, the company commits to Carbon Neutral Green Coffee and to conserve water usage in green coffee processing by 50%, both by 2030.

Starbucks has a bold aspiration to be a <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/starbucks-announces-multi-decade-aspiration-to-become-resource-positive/">resource positive</a> company, to take less and give more to the planet in every aspect of its business – including coffee. Starbucks purchases coffee from more than 400,000 farmers in 30 countries around the world and is committed to a sustainable future for coffee.

To protect the resiliency of this supply chain, the people that make it possible, and the planet we all share, Starbucks set goals to achieve carbon neutral green coffee and conserve water usage in green coffee processing by 50% by 2030.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

“As we celebrate 50 years of Starbucks, we are looking ahead at ways we can reimagine the future and continue to inspire and nurture the human spirit,” said Michelle Burns, svp of Global Coffee, Tea and Cocoa at Starbucks. “For farmers and their communities, we know it is critical we work together to address the challenges they face associated with climate change which are making it increasingly difficult to grow high-quality coffee. By reducing carbon emissions and conserving water, we can help farmers be more productive while we are also contributing to a better planet and bringing coffee to customers in a sustainable way."

Accelerating Sustainable Coffee

From the beginning, Starbucks has been a leader in <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2019/building-a-sustainable-future-for-coffee-together/">sourcing coffee responsibly</a>.

These coffee-specific environmental goals are an extension of work underway with C.A.F.E. (coffee and farmer equity) Practices. Evidence shows that farmers participating in the program have higher productivity than the country averages. which has helped Starbucks create a long-term supply of high-quality coffee while positively impacting the lives of coffee farmers and their communities.

Now, in support of the company’s path to a Planet Positive future, Starbucks is focusing on its carbon and water footprints at Origin – or what Starbucks refers to as “the first ten feet” (farm to port).

With this focus on on-farm activities and land use change, Starbucks is addressing its largest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in coffee before the rest of the coffee value chain (like transportation, roasting, or packaging).

“A strong model for corporate climate leadership; Starbucks has developed clear and ambitious targets that prioritize sustainability from farmer to customer,” said Dr. M. Sanjayan, CEO, Conservation International. “Just as significantly, they are backing these commitments with immediate actions to reduce their footprint and invest in nature. I encourage other companies to follow a similar path. &nbsp;It’s good for business, good for people, and essential for our climate.”&nbsp;

Carbon Neutral Green Coffee

Starbucks will work to meet its 2030 target of carbon neutral green coffee, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in coffee at Origin then compensating for any remaining emissions, by deploying three primary strategies:

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Through Starbucks Farmer Support Centers and a new soil scanning mobile app, the company is helping farmers understand the specific nutrients and fertilizer needed to increase farm productivity. In fact, more than 11,500 soil and foliar samples have been collected to date. With these custom, farm-specific solutions, farmers can target and decrease fertilizer use – which helps to decrease carbon emissions on their farms – and increase farm productivity.

With Starbucks open-source agronomy approach, the company shares research, seeds, and seedlings with farmers all around the world, helping farmers to adapt to climate change. These climate-resistant varietals are rust-resistant and enable farmers to grow more coffee on the same amount of land, which then helps to reduce overall carbon emissions.

Land use change and deforestation are the greatest climate risks&nbsp;facing the coffee industry. Working in partnership with Conservation International, Starbucks will invest in forest and landscape protection and restoration programs in coffee producing countries, starting in Colombia and Peru. These agroforestry efforts will not only remove carbon and support the carbon neutral pathway, but also will benefit freshwater ecosystems and coffee communities.

Water Conservation at Origin

Traditional coffee processing is water intensive. With 200,000 wet mills in Starbucks C.A.F.E. Practice supply chain, Starbucks has an opportunity to conserve water by ensuring farmers have access to more environmentally friendly machines, which also standardizes quality and increases processing efficiency for farmers.

Starbucks will&nbsp;achieve&nbsp;50% conservation in water usage by 2030 by:&nbsp;

Over the last year, Starbucks purchased nearly 600 eco-mills that have been distributed to coffee farms in Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Kenya, and Rwanda. The result has been up to 80% water savings in coffee processing where installed.

Through <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/inside-the-tryer-center-the-starbucks-lab-where-anything-is-possible/">Starbucks Tryer Center</a>, we are working with suppliers to explore improvements to existing water processing machinery and technology. Meanwhile, through our <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/ensuring-access-to-agronomy-education-and-resources/">Farmer Support Centers,</a> we are conducting research and gathering insights from farmers to inform future machine design and operations.&nbsp;&nbsp;

As part of Starbucks long-term water strategy, the company will develop water replenishment projects at Origin, wAs part of Starbucks long-term water strategy, the company will develop water replenishment projects at Origin, with a focus on prioritizing action in high-risk basins while supporting watershed health, ecosystem resilience and water equity.

Over the last year, Starbucks launched programs in Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Rwanda, and Kenya to test its carbon and water strategies impacting more than 92,000 farms. In addition to investing in new, water-conserving wet mills, Starbucks worked with farmers to gather more than 11,500 soil and foliar samples to inform soil health.

Based on the success of these initial pilots, Starbucks is now expanding the program to Colombia and launching a new, holistic sustainability project with 100 small-holder farmers in Nariño, Colombia. Over a five-year period, the Nariño project will combine the best of Starbucks knowledge and resources on regenerative agriculture, precision agronomy and farm economics.

Farmers will receive hands-on support including customized, in-depth agricultural and business education and training to best manage their crops and land. They will also receive new equipment and facilities to optimize for reduced water use and carbon emissions and new, climate-resistant coffee seedlings to replace unproductive trees.

This project and partnership with Starbucks will help farmers increase their productivity, quality and profitability while decreasing the environmental footprint generated from coffee growing and processing.

Measuring &amp; Scaling the Work

Starbucks knows the most pressing issues in coffee cannot be solved by one company alone, and that the best solutions require everyone coming together to collaborate in providing a better future for farmers.

Starbucks is working with Conservation International and others, to advise and evolve its carbon neutral coffee roadmap and measurement methodology. Starbucks will share learnings to help the entire industry.

Starbucks has also joined the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate, a CEO-led coalition, as well as the Water Resilience Coalition to elevate our corporate water agenda and partner with other leading companies on collective action projects in key basins around the world.

“On behalf of the CEO Water Mandate team, I am proud to welcome Starbucks to the Water Resilience Coalition’s leadership committee and to working together to advance water stewardship in key basins,” said Jason Morrison, Head of the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate. “This is in line with Starbucks aspiration to be resource-positive and a longstanding history of sustainability work, particularly with coffee farmers on climate-and-water smart agriculture practices. We look forward to having Starbucks join this cohort of leading companies to collectively tackle watershed health issues that will enable more resilient supply chains and farming communities around the world.”

Starbucks will continue to measure its overall carbon and water footprint and share progress annually in its Global Environmental Social Impact Report.&nbsp;The company is also working with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to validate the 2030 corporate sustainability goals, inclusive of green coffee.

The company commits to Carbon Neutral Green Coffee and to conserve water usage in green coffee processing by 50%, both by 2030.

Starbucks announces coffee-specific environmental goals

https://historias.starbucks.com/en-es/stories/2021/starbucks-announces-coffee-specific-environmental-goals-3/

As a progression against those goals, the company commits to Carbon Neutral Green Coffee and to conserve water usage in green coffee processing by 50%, both by 2030.

In 2005, a few months after graduating from architecture school in the Dominican Republic, Gianny Sanchez was working at a job designing houses. But she felt uninspired, and the pay wasn’t enough to be financially independent.&nbsp;

“I just started questioning myself,” she remembers thinking. “I wanted to be part of something bigger than me and further develop myself. I made the decision one Monday sitting at my desk, and the next Monday I was on a plane flying to New Jersey.”&nbsp;

Fifteen years later – after managing the design and construction of duty-free stores for an international makeup company, finishing two master’s degrees in the U.S. and giving birth to her son – Sanchez earlier this year completed a remarkable homecoming. She is the project development manager who helped bring the very first Starbucks store to the D.R. It opened mid-May in the capital, Santo Domingo.&nbsp;

“The first store in my country,” Sanchez says. “It was a very emotional moment for me, especially when I saw that first bag of Dominican coffee for Starbucks.”

This year, during Latinx Heritage Month, Starbucks is proud to honor the rich coffee cultures of Latin America and the stories of our partners who celebrate them still, in ways new and old, stories of families and traditions, stories of leaving home and coming back.&nbsp;

For Sanchez, her relationship with coffee started when she was little. Every summer, her parents would send her off from the city to experience the country life at her grandmother’s house in La Vega, in the northern more mountainous part of the country.&nbsp;

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There, she played with her cousins – sometimes as many as 10 kids stayed the summer – embracing nature and learning about the land. On her grandmother’s property, the family grew coffee and cacao. When it was about to rain, she remembers helping pick up the coffee cherries and cacao beans that were sun drying on the big concrete platform in the backyard.&nbsp;

The platform was attached to an outdoor kitchen, and had a wood-burning stove in the middle called a fogón, on which the family would roast coffee during the day. Afterwards, it was ground by hand in a pilon, or mortar and pestle, and then brewed in a cloth strainer. At night, the kids would huddle together on the platform, turn off the lights and tell each other scary stories, the smell of coffee always lingering close by.&nbsp;

“It’s one of the best memories I have,” Sanchez says.&nbsp;

Sanchez, 37, grew up drinking coffee brewed in a greca, a metal stovetop pot powered by steam – resulting in coffee that’s somewhere between an espresso and a drip. Sanchez says most Dominicans prefer their coffee in small cups – black, full of sugar and accompanied by toast.&nbsp;

Although she lives in Miami now, when Sanchez reminisces about home, she thinks about food and music – the taste of sancocho, a Dominican meat and vegetable stew, and the rhythms of bachata and merengue.&nbsp;

“I miss the simplicity of life,” she says. “People work very hard there, but there’s always time to enjoy, to spend time with friends.”&nbsp;

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Starbucks in the D.R. is now limited to delivery and pickup only, but Sanchez looks forward to the day it will be “flooded with people” who will walk inside and savor the store’s tribute to the country’s indigenous plants and birds, the warm tones and natural materials, the feminine touch that honors strong Caribbean women.&nbsp;&nbsp;

“It was bittersweet of course, leaving my country,” Sanchez says. “But for me, being able to open Starbucks there, I get to see my family, and to share this experience with them. They get to see it first hand, and I know they feel proud of me.”&nbsp;

Mixing cultures together&nbsp;

Esther Salgado’s first coffee creation was a variation on a black and tan, normally a bar drink made by layering a dark beer atop a pale beer. Salgado’s version – concentrated cold brew atop apple juice – was inspired by her aunt, who ate gummy apple candies from Mexico while drinking her coffee.&nbsp;

“That’s where my curiosity took off. My aunt showed me that there was more to coffee than coffee and pastries,” says Salgado, 30, a Starbucks shift supervisor in Ashburn, Va. “I wanted to involve my culture. I wanted to do something different. I wanted to do experiments.”&nbsp;

Salgado, and a co-worker who helped perfect the recipe, introduced the black and tan at a gathering of the mid-Atlantic chapter of Hora del Café, Starbucks Latinx <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/starbucks-partner-networks-help-create-a-culture-of-belonging/">partner network</a>. Over the last few years, she’s shared more and more of her coffee creations with that group, as well as at store tasting events and corporate meetings.

“I just saw it as a challenge, mixing cultures together, incorporating it with my roots,” Salgado says. “When I think of coffee, I think of family. That’s how I feel when I’m making my creations. It brings me a lot of joy to do things like that and to see people’s reactions.”&nbsp;

She wouldn’t have gone down this path had it not been for her sister, Sarah, 31, a Starbucks store manager at a different store in the same district. She’s the one who convinced Esther to move to Virginia from Oregon, where they were born and raised, and introduced her to Starbucks five years ago. They live together now, along with their oldest sister, Jessica.&nbsp;

Up to that point, Esther Salgado was more interested in computers. She’d been working for years at a company that provided phone services for prison inmates and detainees. She started off as a customer service representative but taught herself computer languages and ended up coding and programming at the company’s command center.&nbsp;

Sarah Salgado is equally passionate about coffee, but in a different way. She’s more interested in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf7v367IXoE&amp;feature=emb_logo">the lives and methods of coffee farmers</a>, ethical sourcing practices and the bean-to-cup journey. She completed the Starbucks coffee master program and visited <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/this-earth-day-meet-some-of-the-people-working-to-make-coffee-sustainable/#submenu-of-32409">Hacienda Alsacia</a>, the company’s research coffee farm in Costa Rica, where she planted her own coffee tree. She’s been with Starbucks for 13 years, starting as a barista and managing the Reserve store in Washington D.C. before moving to her current store in Virginia.&nbsp;

Sarah Salgado says she became aware of coffee’s role early on, especially during big family gatherings. At the end of the night, as the party wound down, coffee would be brewed in a big pan, Mexican sweet bread would appear at the table and one of the uncles would pass a small cup to each of the kids.&nbsp;

“It could be the roughest day, the hardest working day, the most stressful day,” Sarah Salgado says. “But having that cup of coffee, eating that bread, that family gathering, reminiscing, those were some really good times. At the end of the day, we just came together and talked. That’s coffee, that’s what it is, that’s what we do. I’m very passionate about that.”&nbsp;

Recently, Sarah Salgado had the opportunity to visit Iguala, a small farming community in the Mexican state of Guerrero, where her father was born. There was only one little market in town, and no Wi-Fi. Roosters woke her up in the morning. It was exciting to see her father’s roots, her roots too.&nbsp;

“It wasn’t easy growing up for him. He had to make a lot of big decisions as a young man,” Sarah Salgado says. “But he was able to make it. I’m grateful for everything he’s given us. I get to be able to tell his story too.”&nbsp;

‘The smell of home’&nbsp;

Narita Oliveira learned how to make cafezinho – “little coffee” in Portuguese – from her grandmother, Vovo Maria. For every cup of water, she’d use two spoons of sugar and two spoons of coffee. She’d dissolve the sugar first and put the coffee grounds in the water just before it would start to boil. Take off the heat, wait a while, then pour through a cloth strainer.&nbsp;

“I have her recipe, but I never met her. She died the year I was born,” says Oliveira, 41, a Starbucks partner resources manager based in Miami, who supports the Latin American Caribbean market. “But the recipe lives on. Everyone in the family still does it that same way.”&nbsp;

Brazil is the number one coffee exporter in the world, and Oliveira grew up in Minas Gerais, a state that produces about half the country’s coffee product. For Oliveira, memories of home mean memories of the big kitchen. She and her two older sisters would sit on the floor while her mom was cooking – talking, helping, having fun.&nbsp;

Every afternoon, the coffee would be served, in small espresso-style cups, often with cheese bread, little sweet chocolate treats called brigadeiros and queijo meia-cura, a semisoft local farm cheese.&nbsp;

“A cousin arrives, then an auntie arrives, then an uncle arrives,” Oliveira remembers. “Nobody arranged that meeting, but everybody knows that there’s going to be fresh coffee around 4:30 or 5. It’s very rare to have a coffee alone, while walking on the street, like they do in the U.S. Usually, you sit for half an hour, talking with family and friends.”&nbsp;

Oliveira left home when she was 25 years old, to work in São Paulo and seek out more opportunities. She worked her way up in human resources, eventually running the online commerce division for a national grocery chain before joining Starbucks, where she was in charge of human resources for the Brazilian market. In 2018, she moved to the U.S. with her husband Jorge and expanded her learnings – a new set of labor laws, the different ways that American companies interviewed and hired, exposure to more diversity.&nbsp;

“All this learning is amazing,” Oliveira says. “It wasn’t easy, and it’s not easy, but to think about what my mom and dad built for us, and the sacrifices they made for us, here I am. It’s something I’m proud of.”&nbsp;

And every time she goes back to visit her parents – they still live in the same house – she wakes up and smells the familiar smells, the smell of coffee, the smell of home.&nbsp;

Starbucks Latinx partners on how a cup of coffee evokes family, culture - Historias-en

Starbucks Latinx partners on how a cup of coffee evokes family, culture

During Latinx Heritage Month, Starbucks honors the rich coffee cultures of Latin America and the stories of our partners.

Taste of home: Starbucks Latinx partners on how a cup of coffee evokes family, culture

https://historias.starbucks.com/en-es/stories/2020/starbucks-partners-share-passion-for-coffee-culture/

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, take a virtual field trip to Costa Rica to meet some of the agronomists and farmers working to address the effects of climate change, disease and diminishing natural resources on coffee farming. They want to ensure your coffee cup – all of our cups – stays full well into the future.

Most coffee drinkers will tell you that coffee, especially in uncertain times, is more than a beverage.

A cup of coffee can represent comfort, stability, a respite – a taste of normality, especially in a world that currently feels anything but. It represents much the same to the people who grow coffee.

“I have coffee for breakfast, at noon, at 2 p.m., and at night I have another cup. It’s like one of my daily meals,” said Ana Mendez, laughing. She and her husband farm coffee on several small plots in Costa Rica.

She said she often thinks of the people around the world drinking the coffee they grow.

“I would want to tell them behind every cup of coffee there is sacrifice, there is work, there is hope, and there is love,” Mendez said. “There is so much love.”

Yet coffee is at a bit of a crossroads. There are more coffee drinkers in the world than ever before, but each year, climate change, disease and diminishing natural resources can make the business of coffee farming more and more difficult. In 2013, Starbucks purchased a coffee farm in Costa Rica called Hacienda Alsacia to better understand these challenges, and to look for solutions. Since then, the farm has become a global hub of research and discovery – discoveries the team there hopes will help coffee farmers all over the planet and the ongoing challenges they face.

In celebration of an unusual Earth Day this year, but one on which the world is uncommonly united in purpose, join us on a virtual field trip to Costa Rica, where you can meet some of the agronomists and farmers working hard to make sure your coffee cup – all of our cups – stays full well into the future.

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“The most complicated problems we have now are (coffee leaf) rust and climate change. It’s affected us a lot,” said Raul Blanco, a 22-year-old farmer in Costa Rica who sells coffee to Starbucks.

A seventh-generation coffee farmer, Blanco said he was born into coffee, and remains dedicated to the future of the crop and his family’s land. He also loves imagining his family’s coffee making its way into the cups of coffee drinkers all over the world.

“I've never in my life thought about giving up coffee farming,” Blanco said. “Instead, I've always tried to look for ways to subsist as a coffee farmer, to improve it, day by day, to making (the farm) more profitable, more economical, and always taking care of the environment. Every coffee bean, every bushel of coffee, every truck full you take out every day is for someone somewhere in the world to enjoy it – for someone who is having a cup of coffee to delight in it.”

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Starbucks purchases three percent of the world’s coffee, which is grown by more than 400,000 farmers much like Blanco. Here are six things Starbucks and coffee farmers around the world are doing to help ensure the future of coffee is sustainable and strong:

There’s a sign in the Hacienda Alsacia visitors’ center that reads, “Our mission is to ensure the future of coffee for everyone.” This means Hacienda Alsacia sharing its agronomy research, sustainable farming practices and disease-resistant coffee trees with farmers all over the world so their farms can be more productive and sustainable, which means they can grow even more sustainable, high-quality coffee for Starbucks to buy (and for people to drink), which means coffee farmers have more money to support their families and communities.

“A future without coffee would be almost like a future without rain – on an economic level, for Costa Rica, for families, and also on a personal level for coffee drinkers,” Mendez said. “I feel optimistic about coffee. We always plant more trees because we have to teach to the children, and we must protect nature and the environment.”

This Earth Day, meet some of the people working to make coffee sustainable - Historias-en

This Earth Day, meet some of the people working to make coffee sustainable

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, take a virtual field trip to Costa Rica to meet some of the agronomists and farmers working to address the effects of climate change.

https://historias.starbucks.com/en-es/stories/2020/this-earth-day-meet-some-of-the-people-working-to-make-coffee-sustainable-2/

The journey a coffee bean follows from farm to cup is an arduous one. It usually begins high in the hills of the Coffee Belt, a band that wraps around the Earth’s middle between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Bucket by bucket, the beans are hand-picked and processed before trundling down winding roads to cargo ships destined for roasting plants and cafés around the world. 

To get the best beans, buyers from Starbucks have traveled to the source since the first store opened back in 1971. They journeyed to far-flung farms in places in Latin America, Asia and East Africa, taking time to get to know farmers and their communities along the way.&nbsp;&nbsp; 

When Starbucks launched its C.A.F.E. Practices sustainable sourcing program in 2004, the company knew that building on these personal relationships would be critical to the program’s success. It opened its first <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2018/starbucks-farmer-support-centers/">Farmer Support Center</a> that same year in San José, Costa Rica, and hired a team of agronomists to bring farmers into the program.

Carlos Mario Rodriguez, director and global head of coffee research and development for Starbucks, was part of that first Farmer Support Center agronomy team. He drove his pickup truck over countless miles of narrow roads to visit farmers and help them with a range of sustainability issues and ensure a long-term supply of quality coffee. He helped them set up their own test plots, showed them how to space trees correctly and offered suggestions to manage erosion and reduce the use of pesticides.&nbsp; 

William Chacon, owner of the Café Las Peñas farm in Sabanilla, Costa Rica, has been working with Starbucks agronomists for more than 10 years, even when his farm is not selling to Starbucks. 

“There are many problems related to deforestation, and the coffee gets damaged by disease, and so the quality suffers too,” said Chacon. “With Starbucks help, we are producing new varieties of coffee. The quality is good because the leaves and the plants grow healthy.” 

In the Farmer Support Center's first year of operation, 43.5 million pounds of green (unroasted) coffee were purchased from C.A.F.E. Practices-approved suppliers, representing 14.5 percent of total coffee purchases. In the 15 years that followed, purchases under the program continued to grow and Starbucks expanded its global network of farmer support. A satellite location in Guatemala City opened in 2006, followed by Rwanda in 2009, Tanzania in 2011 and Colombia in 2012. Field by field, farm by farm – this new approach to sustainable sourcing was taking root.

In 2012, Starbucks opened its sixth Farmer Support Center, and first in Asia, in Yunnan, China’s Pu’er region. Alan Tong was the first agronomist at the <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2017/yunnan-single-origin-coffee/">China Farmer Support Center</a>, starting with just 25 coffee growers.

Since then, he and his team have trained nearly 10,000 farmers in China in sustainable farming practices and 1,200 farms are now verified through C.A.F.E. Practices. They are also putting resources toward <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2018/starbucks-deepens-its-commitment-in-yunnan-communities/">creating pathways out of poverty in coffee farming communities</a> across the region.

After opening two more Farmer Support Centers in Ethiopia (2014) and Indonesia (2015), Starbucks’ oldest Farmer Support Center also became its newest. In 2016 the San José agronomy center moved from its downtown office building to a farm 15 miles up a mountain road to the foot of the Poàs Volcano. The 600-acre working farm and visitor’s center at <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2018/coffee-sustainability/">Hacienda Alsacia</a> serves as Starbucks global agronomy research and development center.

“I can show [farmers] how we have been doing things,” said Victor Trejos, general manager of Hacienda Alsacia. “How we have been planting, how we fertilize, soil tests … and how they can do the same.” 

The farm includes 14 hectares dedicated to research. It’s a testing ground to push the boundaries of agronomy research to breed trees that are resistant to coffee leaf rust, or roya, which is ravaging coffee crops in Latin America. The team also analyzes soil, fine tunes pruning techniques, and supports farmers in other ways to increase coffee trees’ quality and productivity. Its findings aren’t kept in a company vault; they are shared freely with researchers and farmers everywhere.

Starbucks opened its tenth Farmer Support Center in <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2021/starbucks-opens-farmer-support-center-in-brazil-for-coffee-growing/">Brazil</a> in August 2021.&nbsp;To date, Starbucks has trained&nbsp;more than 200,000 farmers providing free access to education and resources through its Farmer Support Centers. Its aspiration is to&nbsp;<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2015/making-coffee-the-worlds-first-sustainably-sourced-agriculture-product/">make coffee the world’s first sustainably sourced agricultural product</a>.

But for Rodriguez, the accomplishment is best measured one farm, one farmer at a time.

“To me, as a professional, as a partner, it’s the best part really when you start working with a particular farmer and see that they are improving their living conditions and being able to keep producing coffee as a good business,” he said. “That’s the best. It’s really something that motivates us.” 

Farmer Support Centers help ensure coffee's future, farm by farm - Historias-en

Farmer Support Centers help ensure coffee&#8217;s future, farm by farm

How Starbucks provide farmers across the globe free access to education and resources.

https://historias.starbucks.com/en-es/stories/2019/ensuring-access-to-agronomy-education-and-resources-7/

Farmer Support Centers help ensure coffee’s future, farm by farm

Centered on Sustainability

In honor of International Women’s Day, meet Cecilia Valderrama Gómez, Manjula Kahar and Nande Anggun, women who live in different countries but are united in their commitment to improving their communities with the support of The Starbucks Foundation. 

It was a mother’s sacrifice that was nearly unfathomable. In order to save her children, Cecilia Valderrama Gómez knew she would have to send them away. She and her husband and four children lived in El Escobal, a rural area in Colombia that was controlled for 50 years by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

“Because of the conflict, people were living in fear,” she said. “There was a lot of fear in doing just basic activities. We couldn’t dare try to leave the area.” 

The FARC was known to recruit young children and use them as runners. So, when Valderrama Gómez’s children were between 9 and 13, she sent three of them to stay with family in a safer area where they could go to school and wouldn’t be taken by the FARC.

“I didn’t want them to be at risk,” she said. Years passed, and it wasn’t until the conflict ended two years ago that she saw them again. Her son who wasn’t able to go with the others ended up being conscripted by the FARC and later went to jail.

It’s overwhelming recalling all that she went through living in the shadow of the FARC, she said. Instead, she chooses to focus on the present and work toward the future. Today, “I’m happy and hopeful,” she said. “I have always wanted to help others fight for a better life and to help others get ahead.”

Valderrama Gómez, 52, is doing exactly that as president of the Escobal Women’s Association, an organization comprised of 16 women, dedicated to improving conditions for the community after the conflict. About half of the families in her community don’t have basic sanitation services. Many don’t have bathrooms. 

That’s now starting to change due to help from a $500,000 grant to Lutheran World Relief from The Starbucks Foundation, which is targeted toward improving sanitation and access to clean water and also creating greater economic opportunity for women in coffee communities in Tolima, Colombia. 

In 2018, The Starbucks Foundation announced a goal of empowering 250,000 women and girls by 2025 in communities where coffee, tea, and cocoa is grown. Since then, the foundation has given nearly $4 million dollars to 11 programs focused on women’s leadership opportunities, economic development, access to water, sanitation, health, education and more. 

Starbucks currently partners with a number of non-profits around the world who lead the programs, including Barefoot College, CARE, Days for Girls International, Lutheran World Relief (in Colombia and Indonesia), Roger Federer Foundation, Send a Cow, UNICEF Ethical Tea Partnership, Instituto del Café’ de Costa Rica, Malala Fund and World Relief.

Fact Sheet: <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2019/03/Fact-Sheet-The-Starbucks-Foundation-Grants-to-Empowering-Women.pdf">The Starbucks Foundation Grants to Empowering Women</a>

“When you invest in women, you are investing in an entire ecosystem,” said Virginia Tenpenny, vice president of Global Social Impact at Starbucks and executive director of The Starbucks Foundation. “We’re focused on investments that lead to women being empowered, specifically in health, educational opportunities and income, so they can in turn empower their families and communities as well.”

The women of the Escobal Women’s Association may be small in number, but they know how to organize and get things done, a point of pride for Valderrama Gómez. They raise bees and sell the honey locally, providing an income for their families while working toward a goal of being able to sell their honey in the larger cities and grow their customer base. 

They are also about to use those same organizational skills to help facilitate the building of more toilets in her community. Women from her group will meet with families in the area to assess the need. And then they’ll coordinate getting the supplies there via a two-hour journey by donkey.

Valderrama Gómez knows that better sanitation means less sickness and disease. People get sick if the water is contaminated. The closest hospital is miles away. 

“If you have better sanitation, you have better health,” she said. “My hope is to see new projects continue and for the community to really grow, not just in prosperity but in peace.”

That’s the hope of The Starbucks Foundation too, said Tenpenny.

“Women have an instinct to pay it forward,” she said. In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, meet some of the other women who are working to change the world, one community at a time.

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