CARE and Starbucks

Families living in the southern highlands, where CARE is working, are very vulnerable to drought and food shortages.

Over the coming year, CARE and Starbucks will be helping 1,500 households in the West Harrarghe region of Ethiopia to tackle the underlying causes of their vulnerability by improving their agricultural techniques and giving them the skills to better irrigate their land and increase their crop yields.

We also know that it is absolutely vital that people learn to read and write if they are to fight their way out of poverty and make their voices and views heard – so we are also setting up adult literacy schemes to do just that.

Starbucks and CARE International have been working together for 15 years and over this period, Starbucks has contributed more than $3million (£1.5 million) to CARE projects in coffee-growing parts of the world.

In the first year, Starbucks in the UK will be raising funds for, and awareness about, the project in West Harrarghe, in all its stores throughout the UK and Ireland.

Starbucks employees are also supporting CARE by taking part in a sponsored CARE Adventure Challenge event in the Lake District in July.

In June last year, eleven teams from Starbucks competed in a CARE Adventure Challenge in North Wales, tackling forest trails by mountain bike, trekking to the summit of Snowdon and kayaking.  Together, the teams raised £23,000 for CARE’s work.