Inspirational coffee company

IN conjunction with Starbucks 5th Global Month of Service (GMoS), the coffee franchise powerhouse synergised with its partners, as well as volunteers, in an initiative to give back to society. Part of an on-going movement called "Connecting Communities", the concept of the initiative encourages youth to partake in environmental and community projects. This time round, Starbucks teamed up with Roots & Shoots Malaysia, Hope Worldwide Malaysia and Nikon Photography Club to uplift selected communities involved in the programme.
"Every Starbucks store is a part of a community, and we're committed to strengthening neighbourhoods wherever we do business. We believe in the power of the coffeehouse to bring people together and share passions to be catalysts for change. Therefore, every April, Starbucks will celebrate the annual GMoS, where our partners (employees) will dedicate their time and energy to create positive change in their local neighbourhoods," said Starbucks managing director for Malaysia and Brunei Sydney Quays.
Changing lives
Fully committed to empowering the local communities, the objective of this year's "Connecting Communities" campaign is to enrich the lives of farmers through a scalable project. The move oversees the practice of ethical sourcing which provided a gateway opportunity for small villages and their people, to improve the quality of their lives.
The residents of Kampung Lubuk Jaya in Kuala Selangor were among the first rural communities to benefit from this project.
They established a "partnership" and worked hand-in-hand with Starbucks Malaysia. The tie-up saw the coffee franchise purchase produce from the village's banana plantation, which was then used to develop banana-based products to be marketed at all Starbucks stores nationwide.
A total of RM118,000 was collected from the sale of these products. Fifteen per cent of the proceeds were channelled back to Kampung Lubuk Jaya, where a Community Computer Centre was built.
Said village head E'Ajis Jaafar: "The farmers in Kampung Lubuk Jaya are truly blessed with the partnership between Starbucks and our village.
"The banana farmers in this village are now able to garner up to RM4,000 a month on the average, as the prices set by Starbucks are lucrative and consistent.
"Although palm oil is the main agriculture product here, banana cultivation has proven to be very profitable. This has helped improved our lives."
Starbucks and its partners also came together recently to build a proper drainage system at the village's Community Computer Centre.
The project, which covers approximately 240 sq m, is to ensure that excess water is channelled away from the village to prevent flash flood.
Educating the young
Besides the above-mentioned projects, Starbucks also came up with a US$10,000 grant to fund e-Learning classes at the Community Computer Centre. The classes are conducted by Hope Worldwide Malaysia, an NGO.
This noble act ensures that both the long- and short-term objectives of the community programmes are supported, in the areas of education, health and the environment. The grant will be used to acquire course syllabus and materials and the administration of classes at the centre.
As part of the learning programme at the centre, Starbucks also introduced the "Young Author Programme" to encourage village children to embrace the art of writing and storytelling. A platform to gather young writers together, Starbucks will be working with the children participating in the e-Learning programme from Kampung Lubuk Jaya, to encourage them to share their life stories.
In this respect, Nikon Malaysia took the opportunity to have members of its photography club engage with the children, helping them to capture and interpret their life stories through photographs. This initiative also involved volunteers from Roots & Shoots Malaysia.
"Through this meaningful activity, participants from different walks of life will be able to contribute to society by engaging and providing opportunities for the youth to challenge perceptions and observe things from different perspectives, which in a nutshell is what photography is all about," said Nikon Malaysia consumer products general manager David Ng.
Coffee with a difference
In another initiative, Starbucks partnered with Craft CT 01 Enterprise in Felda Chini Timur 01, Pahang and worked with a group of mothers from Kampung Cheruk Paloh in Kuantan, to produce mengkuang-based products. Established by four forerunners of the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda), the "Starbucks Mengkuang Hot Cup Sleeve" will be developed and sold at all Starbucks cafés nationwide from July 2015. The sleeve is delicately handmade from processed mengkuang (screwpine) leaves and is suitable to be used on Starbucks Tall-, Grande- and Venti-sized cups or tumblers.
"We are constantly on the hunt to source local raw products that can be developed and sold at Starbucks. Products will either be rebranded or upgraded to meet international standards.
"We don't only focus on selling of the bananas but the social impact that this project generates … to uplift communities through programmes such as the Young Author Programme, as well as to the construction of the Community Computer Centre in Kampung Lubuk Jaya," said Berjaya Starbucks Coffee public affairs & digital strategy senior manager Salleharon Ahmad.