Press release
375KB
august 30, 2017 - Starbucks
Sending memories through the mail: Starbucks stores embrace soldiers
By Bonnie Rochman / #starbucks Newsroom
Eddy Cazarez remembers the stories as much as the scents.
Cazarez, an Army staff sergeant, was stationed in a valley in Bagram, Afghanistan, surrounded by snowy peaks that scraped the sky. From November 2016 until May 2017 — with a brief break to come home to Florida for the birth of his son, on Cazarez’s 35th birthday, no less — he and the other soldiers in the 7th Special Forces Group lived in shipping containers outfitted with bunks and drank coffee that he described as “warm brown water.”
“It was worse than gas station coffee,” said Cazarez, who works in military intelligence. “It’s definitely a last resort.”
Fortunately, Cazarez got a reprieve from the murky tepid stuff being served in the mess hall. In the six months he was deployed, his unit received nearly a dozen shipments of #starbucks coffee from a San Antonio store managed by his cousin, Esther Ortega-Johnson. More than 200 military units have been connected with a store through Adopt a Unit, a U.S. initiative that encourages #starbucks partners to donate coffee, treats and useful items such as socks and soap to soldiers overseas. In some cases, stores extend the donation option to customers as well. And partners in the #starbucks Support Center (the Seattle headquarters) also participate, stockpiling donations and organizing “packing parties.”
When a package would arrive at the military installment, its contents aromatically announced themselves, seeping through the cardboard. “You can smell the coffee coming through the box,” said Cazarez. “As you open it and smell the different aromas of the different coffees they sent, we would tell stories.”
More information on the press release
Adopt a Unity (7)
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Adopt a Unity (4)
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Adopt a Unity (1)
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