Lately, social media has been in an uproar because of the lack of snowflakes and other seasonal symbols on Starbucks Coffee's seasonal red cups this year. The coffee tastes the same, the company's mission is the same, and they continue doing the same things they've been doing. They just chose to save a little money on ink by making the cups much simpler. Apparently Evangelicals have been up in arms over this, saying things like "Starbucks is trying to take away Christmas."
Ironically, the more vocal group is the group arguing AGAINST the Evangelical crowd, using rhetoric like, "If coffee cups define your Christmas, it's you who needs Jesus." And, as always with these types of issues, there are so many more pressing matters at hand with which we should concern ourselves. There's a whole myriad of issues beyond Starbucks' seasonal trade dress. We American Christians like to get a little bit salty because we feel "persecuted" or something over the fact that the link between Jesus' birth and frozen precipitation is no longer immediately obvious on our overpriced cups of caffeine and carbohydrates, but there are people of faith in places outside the U.S. that are literally DYING to pursue the heart of Christ.
But I digress. The point I'm working toward is this: Starbucks, as a publicly-traded, for-profit company does a heck of a lot more good that most of us Christians do on a daily basis. Here's what they've been up to while you're looking for a reason to defect to Dunkin Donuts.
They made a tremendous pledge in 2013 to hire 10,000 veterans and their spouses by 2018, and they're already at half that number.
In addition to hiring veterans when they return from overseas to allow them to continue to serve their communities and transition to civilian life, good old S-Bux is donating $5 to the U.S.O. for every Veterans Gift Card activated between now and Veterans' Day (Nov. 11). They're also giving deployed service members a "taste of home" by matching online Via Instant purchases and sending the matches to the U.S.O.
Starbucks has partnered with Opportunity Youth to provide at-risk youth with a chance to succeed that they wouldn't otherwise have.
The company has also instituted a College Achievement Plan in tandem with Arizona State University in recognition of the fact that 70% of their employees have dreams of attending college.
Starbucks is headed by a socially responsible CEO who runs his own foundation separate from Starbucks.
Starbucks' Chief Executive Officer Howard Shultz and his wife Sheri run the Shultz Family Foundation, dedicated to bettering the lives of youth and veterans.
Starbucks is committed to helping farmers.
For every bag of coffee sold at participating Starbucks stores in the United States, the average cost of a tree will be donated to Conservation International to help coffee farmers succeed.
The list goes on.
A simple five-minute visit to the Starbucks website will yield a tremendous amount of information about the company's social responsibility and the steps it takes to help the communities in which the stores are located and in which their coffee is grown, and beyond.
Changing the appearance of the cups the store rolls out the day after Halloween doesn't make Starbucks the devil. In fact, Starbucks does so much more than meets the eye, and does so much more than does the average Christian to better the lives touched by the coffee shop's existence.
