Starbucks Celebrates 10 Years of the FoodShare Program

Published On: February 26th, 2026By Categories: Partnerships3.5 min read

Ten years. More than 4.2 million pounds rescued. 248 stores participating in San Diego County. These numbers exemplify the incredible impact the Starbucks FoodShare Program has had on our community since we helped pilot the program in 2016. For over a decade, this partnership has shown what’s possible when a global, for-profit company prioritizes non-profit partnership. This program prevents food waste at scale and provides unsold, nourishing Starbucks food neighbors facing hunger. Feeding San Diego is proud to have been an early partner with Starbucks on this inspired initiative, a national program in partnership with Feeding America.

A man preparing food

A volunteer at Third Avenue Charitable Organization (TACO) prepares rescued food from Starbucks to serve the downtown unhoused community.

History of the Starbucks FoodShare Program

In 2016, Starbucks partners (employees) championed the idea of donating leftover food to people facing hunger in their communities. The result was the Starbucks FoodShare Program. Starbucks partners with Feeding America and other hunger-relief organizations to divert surplus food away from landfills and to people who need it.

Feeding San Diego has partnered with Starbucks since the beginning of the FoodShare Program. Originally, Starbucks donations were handled by our food rescue program and were picked up by our organization. We connected coffeehouses with our agency partners and arranged for them to pick up donations for the people they serve.

In 2020, the program switched to a third-party logistics backhaul model. Starbucks now employs delivery drivers with refrigerated trucks to pick up the donations and transport them to a nearby distribution center. This change improved consistency with pickups across the county. Instead of coordinating pickups among seven different agencies, one partner, Penske, handles them all. The food then flows out to Feeding San Diego’s participating partners for distribution to those they serve, allowing agencies to focus on what they do best: getting food into our community.

A Growing Partnership

Over the past ten years, over 4.2 million pounds of food have been rescued through this partnership. Throughout the decade, the amount of food rescued steadily increased as more coffeehouses were onboarded to the program. Currently, 248 Starbucks locations in San Diego County donate to Feeding San Diego, and eleven agency partners participate in the program.

The rescued food goes throughout the county to LJC Ministries, San Diego Rescue Mission, Jewish Family Services, Oceanside Sanctuary, Iglesia Casa De Alabanaza, Mountain View Community Church, Urban Street Angels, City Heights Assembly of God, Veterans’ Village, Salvation Army: Centre City, and Third Avenue Charitable Organization (TACO).

Molly Smith, the Nutrition Operations Manager at Jewish Family Services, shared the impact of the rescued food.

A woman standing in a market aisle

Molly Smith, standing in The Corner Market of Jewish Family Services

“We’d hate to see all this food go to the landfill, but get so much joy out of giving it to people,” she explained. “The fact that Starbucks has their FoodShare Program really sets the bar for local companies to join them.”

The prepared food Starbucks donates is ideal for specific communities, such as unhoused individuals and people living in their vehicles. Many of our partners incorporate the food into their breakfast programs, making hot meals for community members.

“They come knock on the doors, ‘Is Starbucks here yet?” Susan Fleming, the executive director of Third Avenue Charitable Organization (TACO), shared. “We have just come to rely on Starbucks food. The 200 people we serve a day are extremely grateful.”

A woman standing on a balcony

Susan Fleming

Going Beyond Food

The Starbucks FoodShare Program does more than rescue food. It also helps build capacity to support overall hunger-relief efforts. Over the past ten years, Starbucks has provided more than 2.7 million dollars in grants to increase Feeding San Diego’s capacity and that of our partners. These grants have helped offset the costs of food rescue and support the purchase of vans for food rescue, food safety equipment, freezers, pallet trucks, and much more.

Celebrating Ten Years of Starbucks FoodShare

With over 400,000 San Diegans facing food insecurity, partnerships like the Starbucks FoodShare Program are critical to our mission. We’re proud to celebrate the tenth anniversary of this incredible program.