National Indigenous Peoples Day (June 21) marks a day for us all to honour the rich and diverse cultures, voices, experiences and histories of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.&nbsp;At Starbucks Canada, we believe that taking the time to learn more about Indigenous Peoples, places and experiences is a step forward on the path to Reconciliation.

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This <a href="https://stories.starbucks.ca/en-ca/stories/2022/18366/">Indigenous History Month</a>, we have been inspired by the passion and continued engagement of our partners (employees) from coast-to-coast connecting with their Indigenous community members and allies to foster a community of belonging. Today, while we celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day, we also acknowledge the many partners proudly working to create a more inclusive future, representative of diverse identities and experiences.

An in-depth look at how one partner is advocating for Indigenous communities

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A partner of seven years, Halifax-based District Manager Sara (she/her) has advocated for Indigenous communities for as long as she can remember. So, it came as no surprise when she joined the Indigenous Partner Network (IPN) when it was founded in 2020 to foster safe and supportive spaces for Indigenous partners and their allies. With over 500 members, partners like Sara regularly come together to connect, build allyship and continue to advocate for opportunities for and within Indigenous communities across the country.

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As part of the IPN, Sara has been able to strengthen ties to the local community while also addressing critical needs identified by local Indigenous community organizations. Sara also rallies her East coast community to come together for back-to-school backpack drives for Indigenous youth, food drives and so much more.

Uplifting communities in partnership with the Starbucks Foundation

One local organization Sara works with is the <a href="https://mymnfc.com/">Mi’Kmaw Native Friendship Centre</a>, a not-for-profit working to improve the lives of aboriginal peoples living in urban environments. Through social and cultural programs, the Mi'KMaw Friendship Centre supports the local Indigenous community with multiple initiatives including tackling food and housing needs.

Sara explained that the learnings go both ways, sharing how her team of partners has been able to get extra education like treaty education, which supports partner growth and move the march to Reconciliation forward. The organization also focuses on supporting Indigenous youths' personal and professional development—something Sara is personally invested in, through programming and resources like mock interviews, skill-building, resume-building and interview readiness workshops, mentorship conversations and beyond. It’s one of the many reasons she nominated the Centre to receive a Starbucks Neighbourhood Grant.

Neighbourhood Grants are investments that help build sustained local impact and inspire increased partner volunteerism with nonprofit organizations that work in our communities. Through this unique program, The Starbucks Foundation invites Starbucks partners – like Sara – to nominate a local organization that they are actively involved with in their community. 

“Through this Neighbourhood Grant and the IPN's long-lasting commitment to the betterment of Indigenous lives, we can be deliberate and intentional in providing resources, platforms and support wherever and whenever we can,” Sara shares. &nbsp;

By providing the support and resources to community-development focused organizations, the Starbucks Foundation’s Neighbourhood Grants program puts the power of a platform and room for advocacy in the hands of partners. It’s through this movement and with the work of our very own IPN that we can celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day, every day.

National Indigenous Peoples Day (June 21) marks a day for us all to honour the rich and diverse cultures, voices, experiences and histories of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

Turning acknowledgement into action and advocacy for the Indigenous community  - Starbucks Canada

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Starbucks Canada

Turning acknowledgement into action and advocacy for the Indigenous community 

https://stories.starbucks.ca/en-ca/stories/2022/turning-acknowledgement-into-action-and-advocacy-for-the-indigenous-community/

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Starbucks is taking several actions to protect the health and well-being of our partners (employees) and customers and to control the spread of COVID-19. All decisions are grounded in partner and customer care and safety, based on facts and science, and communicated with transparency. Read below for an at-a-glance overview.

Your Starbucks Experience may look different as we navigate this dynamic situation community-by-community and store-by-store. Our commitment to you is that we will continue to make proactive decisions for our partners and the people we serve.

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Starbucks is offering support with comprehensive care to all our store partners including a recently announced wage increase, mental health benefits and paid time for sick days and family care.

While stores across the country continue to support communities at local levels, we have assembled the biggest, most comprehensive donation program in the history of Starbucks Canada to support Canadians across the country in three areas: first responders and front-line workers; access to food; and support for the most vulnerable Canadians.

Thanking front-line responders: The Starbucks Foundation donated $100,000 to COVID-19 fundraising drives set up by hospital foundations in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal. And, to say thank you, Starbucks offered <a href="https://stories.starbucks.ca/en/stories/2020/starbucks-partners-covid-19-front-line-responders/">free brewed coffee (hot or iced) to all front-line responders</a> from March until May 2020. To date, our partners have served <a href="https://stories.starbucks.ca/en/stories/2020/1-million-cups-of-free-coffee-served-to-front-line-responders/">more than one million cups of free coffee </a>to first responders and front-line healthcare workers across Canada and the U.S.

Helping vulnerable Canadians: $100,000 from The Starbucks Foundation went to <a href="https://www.unitedway.ca/">United Way Centraide</a>’s COVID-19 Community Response and Recovery Fund. The donation will help the United Way accomplish its priorities: to ensure people in self-isolation have basic needs, such as food and supplies; to give support to seniors in isolation; and to ensure mental health services are available to vulnerable Canadians.

Supporting food banks: Starbucks Canada and The Starbucks Foundation donated <a href="https://stories.starbucks.ca/en/stories/2020/starbucks-canada-donates-over-1-million-to-help-growing-food-crisis/">over $1 million in food and financial support</a> to help the complex changing realities of food banks and community outreach organizations during COVID-19. This includes helping them shift their operational needs and providing drivers from Starbucks Canada’s foodservice distributor GFS (Gordon Food Service) to deliver food to those most in need.

Neighbourhood Grants: Throughout the pandemic, the Starbucks Foundation <a href="https://stories.starbucks.ca/en/stories/2020/the-starbucks-foundation-invests-145k-in-grants-to-support-local-communities-across-canada/">has been making rounds of donations</a> to hundreds of organizations across Canada, and is currently reviewing a record number of nominations made by stores in the latest round. These grants were informed and inspired by Starbucks partners who highlighted the causes and organizations uplifting their communities during COVID-19. In Canada, we heard from our partners about how hunger relief, supporting families and children, and addressing homelessness are top of mind. Additionally, Starbucks partners are volunteering their time and making their own financial donations to local charities across the country.

Starbucks is taking several actions to protect the health and well-being of our partners (employees) and customers and to control the spread of COVID-19. Here’s what you need to know.

At a Glance: What Customers Need to Know about Starbucks Response to COVID-19

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https://stories.starbucks.ca/en-ca/stories/2022/what-customers-need-to-know-about-starbucks-response-to-covid-19/

At a Glance: Our Response to COVID-19

Open letter to all Canadian store partners (employees) from Lori Digulla, president of Starbucks Canada

Over the past three weeks we have found ourselves working and living through a quickly evolving health risk.&nbsp;Although this situation is new to many of us, what isn’t is our strong commitment to take care of each other and our communities both proactively and as individual needs arise. Our guiding principle from the beginning has been to lead with partner care, transparency, decision-making based in facts and science, combined with frequent communication to ensure every partner has the latest information.

Above all else, I want you to know your Starbucks family is here for you. This may not feel imminent for every part of Canada, but if or when it is, I want you to know about, and feel fully supported by, our comprehensive partner care during COVID-19.

We have already activated a set of temporary, precautionary measures in our stores to help limit the spread and do what’s right for you and our customers. Thank you for your leadership and accountability as you embraced and implemented these changes so quickly! Over the last 10 days we:

Even more importantly, if you or your loved ones are unfortunately impacted more directly, Starbucks is committed to provide comprehensive support for you because you should never have to choose between work and taking care of yourself. Here’s what you need to know:

Our COVID-19 Working Groups will continue to stay close to the Public Health Agency of Canada, food safety experts and other public health authorities as we move through this together. The thoughtful protocols they have developed for every possible scenario are proactive in nature and grounded in partner care, facts and science. I am so very grateful for their incredible knowledge, leadership and dedication.

I can’t thank you enough for supporting the very important work to stop, contain, control, delay and reduce the impact of this virus at every opportunity. And I want you to know that you are fully supported as we work through these ever-changing times.

Please let us know if there is anything you need. We are all here to help.

Open letter to all Canadian store partners (employees) from Lori Digulla, president of Starbucks Canada.

Comprehensive Partner Care during COVID-19

Letter to Partners: Caring for Starbucks Partners during COVID-19

https://stories.starbucks.ca/en-ca/stories/2020/comprehensive-partner-care-during-covid-19/

“Art’s always that much more special when it’s made by someone in the community.”

This summer, when you pick up your morning coffee or join Pride celebrations in communities across Canada, there’s a good chance you’ll see Starbucks partners (what we call employees) wearing the vibrant tees designed by Toronto partner Jenelle Lewis. Her design was chosen from nearly 50 submissions from partners around the country through a contest coordinated by the Canada Pride Alliance Network, one of Starbucks’ oldest and largest partner networks made up of hundreds of members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies. More than 2,500 partners will be wearing their pride on their sleeves throughout the summer.

For Jenelle, the contest was the perfect opportunity to share her love of design, passion for Starbucks and her pride in her identity. “As a queer woman of colour, I needed to contribute to the community. Starbucks contributes to the LGBTQ community so much, so I wanted [my design] to be really special.”

Canada Pride Alliance Network Co-Chairs Steven Snyder and Jeremy Jones had the contest idea two years ago to foster a uniquely Canadian celebration of Pride and the inclusivity it represents. This spring they made it happen. Jeremy was amazed by the enthusiasm. “The response was incredible to see. We had partners from the Prairies, partners from the Maritimes, every market was represented by at least one entry. The designs were totally eclectic and different from each other and had their own creativity behind it.”

As soon as her manager let her know about the competition, Jenelle got to work. “I literally pulled out some receipt paper and started sketching when I was on the floor. My team thought it was really funny. They were like ‘Of course you would start sketching ideas now…you wouldn’t even wait.’ I was so excited to just start and finish. My heart and soul and everything went into it.” 

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As her designs moved from receipt paper to sketch pad, a concept began to come to life: Jenelle wanted to combine elements of the Pride Flag, the Transgender Flag, and browns representing queer people of colour with the iconic bloom of latte art. The phrase “A splash of pride in every cup” that’s proudly displayed on the back of each Pride shirt was taken from an alternate design Jenelle submitted, but she felt it fit the winning concept perfectly. 

Members of the Canada Pride Alliance Network considered each entry over three rounds of voting. They had a range of criteria, including creativity, originality and how it embodied Pride at Starbucks. Jenelle’s entry captured each. Steven Snyder summed up the judges’ reaction: “The design, the colours, everything stands out. This shirt is unapologetically Pride.”

Jenelle found her way to this winning approach organically. “Working at Starbucks for so many years, I already felt I had a connection to the company when I started designing. The ideology of the design is intuitive to me because I’ve been doing this for such a long time. A lifetime of learning and experimentation.”

The meaning of Pride is unique to everyone. For Jenelle, it’s about “being comfortable in who you are at a time when people feel the need to be different or have a different persona, especially on the internet, to get likes. Just being confident and just loving life.” 

When Jenelle discovered her art had been chosen, she was overcome with emotion. 

“I had to leave the floor. I couldn’t believe it. Honestly, I almost cried. I was shaking.” But this is just the beginning. “Now I’m more inspired than ever.”

Join Jenelle and other partners in your community in celebrating inclusion this Pride Month.

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This month, when you pick up your morning coffee or join Pride celebrations in communities across Canada, there’s a good chance you’ll see Starbucks partners (what we call employees) wearing the vibrant tees designed by Toronto partner Jenelle Lewis.

A Splash of Pride in Every Cup - Starbucks Canada

https://stories.starbucks.ca/en-ca/stories/2019/behind-the-green-apron-a-splash-of-pride-in-every-cup/