At a Glance: Our Response to COVID-19

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.

Our Stores

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.

• Download the Starbucks App to order ahead and pay: Using the Starbucks App, customers can locate a store, order ahead and pay. For those new to using the Starbucks App, here are step-by-step instructions for digital ordering.
• Grab-and-go:  Customers can place an order in the café and take their order to-go or use the “order ahead” feature in the Starbucks App to pick it up at the counter.
• Drive-thru:  Customers can order at the drive-thru or pick up an order placed ahead on the Starbucks app. Varies by location.
• Starbucks Delivers: In many Canadian markets, customers can also use Starbucks Delivers to have some of their favourite Starbucks food and beverages brought to their door through Uber Eats. .
• Enhanced cleaning measures:  The company continues to observe elevated cleaning and sanitizing protocols to help prevent the spread of all germs in its stores with cleaning practices that meet or exceed public health guidelines and are proven to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
•  Facial coverings: Starbucks recommends partners and customers review public health guidance for their community when deciding whether to continue to wear a facial covering indoors.  Where mandated by local law or regulation, Starbucks requires customers and company-operated store partners to wear a facial covering while in our stores.
• Partner wellness checks:  As an additional safety measure, ahead of each shift, all partners are required to complete a symptom check to ensure they are healthy enough to work. This ensures every member of the team feels confident while working together.

Our Partners

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.

• Emergency financial aid: Another resource is the company’s CUP Fund, which provides grants for partners experiencing financial hardship.
• Mental health: Partners and their family members can access free counseling through the Employee Assistance Program. Partners also have free access to Headspace, a mindfulness and meditation resource, and can lean on the Partner Resources Support Center (888-SBUX-411) for guidance in finding the best solution for their situation. Additionally, benefits enrolled partners have a $5,000 annual mental health benefit available to them and their dependents and the company recently made the LifeWorks Total Wellness platform available to all partners and their families, regardless of whether they are eligible for benefits.
• Non-retail partners: Partners at the Starbucks Support Centers in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver have been instructed to work remotely.

Our Communities

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 free brewed coffee (hot or iced) to all front-line responders from March until May 2020. To date, our partners have served more than one million cups of free coffee 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 United Way Centraide’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 over $1 million in food and financial support 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 has been making rounds of donations 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.