Learn How the Starbucks FoodShare Program Helps Feed People, Not Landfills

Published On: April 4th, 2023By Categories: Partnerships3.9 min read

It’s just after noon on a Tuesday at Jewish Family Service’s campus in Kearny Mesa. Molly Smith, the non-profit’s nutrition operations manager, is sorting through protein boxes, pastries, and sandwiches with the distinctive Starbucks logo. Along with a handful of volunteers, Molly is preparing the day’s donation from the Starbucks FoodShare program. All these Starbucks products will soon stock The Corner Market at Jewish Family Services (JFS), which serves community members experiencing food insecurity.

A orange tub filled with surplus Starbucks food

Surplus food from a local Starbucks

This bounty of food may have ended up in the landfill if not for the Starbucks FoodShare Program. This program represents a Starbucks commitment, in partnership with Feeding America® and other hunger relief organizations, to ensuring unsold food doesn’t go to waste. All company-owned Starbucks stores in the U.S. participate in this program. Here in San Diego, Feeding San Diego is the partner food bank of Feeding America. We work locally with Starbucks stores to rescue surplus food and get it to people facing hunger.

Food for the Community

JFS is just one partner Feeding San Diego works with to get this perfectly good food to people experiencing food insecurity in our community. We work with 11 partners across San Diego County as part of the Starbucks FoodShare program. Partners either pick up the surplus food from a Starbucks store directly or Feeding San Diego’s Sorrento Valley distribution center. Some partners distribute the food via an onsite market or meal program. The Corner Market at JFS serves everyone from young families to seniors to refugees to homebound individuals with a caretaker shopping for them.

A blond woman with glasses standing in a community pantry

Molly Smith, nutrition operations manager at Jewish Family Services

“A lot of clients tell us that they rely on the Starbucks products that they receive here at the Corner Market to give to their children for meals in the morning as they’re going to school. Some clients that are living out of their cars really need quick, microwavable meals or things that can heat up quickly or that don’t need to be heated at all, like the protein boxes,” said Smith. “We’d hate to see all this food go to the landfill but get so much joy out of giving it to people and giving them that opportunity to give it to their families as well.”

Brunch Is Served

Another partner that serves the community is Third Avenue Charitable Organization (TACO). TACO is a non-profit agency whose mission is to support the dignity and well-being of people experiencing houselessness and poverty.

TACO proudly serves brunch to about 200 unhoused individuals every week using the food donated as part of the Starbucks FoodShare program. Their team of volunteers warms up the breakfast sandwiches and pastries. Then they put them in sleeves and serve them alongside Starbucks coffee in their downtown San Diego courtyard.

A volunteer warming rescued Starbucks sandwiches for distribution

A volunteer warms breakfast sandwiches for distribution at TACO’s downtown location

“People are in line at 7 a.m. for a 10 a.m. brunch. They depend on us. The people that are here are chronically homeless. By definition, that’s one year or longer. This food does so much for the people here. Instead of putting it in the landfill, I’d much rather fill the stomachs of people that are in need,” said Susan Fleming, executive director of TACO.

Working Together to End Hunger Through Food Rescue

Every night, Starbucks employees like Sherise Varga, a Starbucks company store manager in Rancho Bernardo, make sure that perishable food that can no longer be sold makes it into the orange and green totes to be picked up by Penske and delivered to Feeding San Diego. In this way, Starbucks employees help ensure that the food feeds the community instead of going to waste.

A man in a Starbucks uniform holding an orange tub

A Starbucks employee packing surplus food to distribute to the community

“As someone who lives and works in San Diego, I’m proud to play a positive role in strengthening my community by supporting people facing hunger through the Starbucks FoodShare program. Now more than ever, our neighborhoods need us, and we need them,” Varga said.

“Access to food is transformational,” said Megan McDonald, neighborhood partnerships manager at Feeding San Diego. She manages the Starbucks program for Feeding San Diego and is the liaison between agency partners, Starbucks, and Feeding America. “When surplus food gets to people facing hunger instead of becoming food waste, it helps communities thrive.” 

Learn more about our partnership with Starbucks in our latest video.