A percentage of store profits to support Kraken’s One Roof Foundation and other local nonprofits
The company will establish an ongoing Puck Drop Grant with first $50,000 to YouthCare to support their work to end youth homelessness
From the company’s start in 1971 as a single store at the Pike Place Market, Starbucks has always been about so much more than coffee. With a mission “to inspire and nurture the human spirit, one cup, one person and one neighborhood at a time,” we believe we have a responsibility to strengthen our communities. That commitment began in our hometown of Seattle 50 years ago and remains true today.
On June 30, 2021, Starbucks and the Seattle Kraken, Seattle’s new professional ice hockey expansion team, announced a multi-year partnership to celebrate and strengthen the Seattle community. This partnership will focus on building community and advancing equity in Seattle through the newly named Kraken Community Iceplex. The Iceplex will serve as a space to support the Northgate community – one of Seattle’s most diverse neighborhoods – and will bring people together and foster a sense of inclusion and belonging through sports and community programs.
“Starbucks has tremendous pride in our hometown, and we are honored to work with an organization like the Seattle Kraken which shares our values,” said Kevin Johnson, CEO at Starbucks. “The people in our city represent the very best of us, and working together, we’re committed to strengthening the Seattle community, celebrating our neighbors, and building a lasting partnership that uplifts the lives of people and families across the Puget Sound.”
Read more about the partnership in a letter to local Seattle partners (employees) from Camille Hymes, vice president of community impact at Starbucks.
Starbucks will serve as one of the Kraken’s Community Impact Partners and will open its 21st Community Store within Kraken Community Iceplex. Starbucks Community Stores are committed to economic development and opportunity in underserved communities. They focus on hiring from the community, partnering with nonprofits and working with local artists, and serve as a space for community events and programs. Unique to the Northgate Community Store at the Iceplex, a percentage of profits will support the Kraken and Climate Pledge Arena’s One Roof Foundation and other local nonprofit organizations.
Slated to open this September, Kraken Community Iceplex will have programs to support youth and adult skating and hockey lessons, youth and adult hockey leagues, figure skating, public skate sessions and more, with the goal of introducing hockey to more members of the Seattle community. Kraken fans will also be able to watch the NHL team practice and attend game viewing events. Program registration and more information is available at www.krakencommunityiceplex.com.
Serving and Engaging the Seattle Community
Together, Starbucks and the Kraken will build this community partnership to address the related, critical needs of access to resources and opportunity for young people – particularly girls and Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) youth – through key investments and programming in partnership with the One Roof Foundation, and local organizations including Black Girl Hockey Club, YouthCare, the Boys and Girls Club, and the Washington Wild, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting girls’ ice hockey.
To further the impact of this partnership, Starbucks will establish an ongoing Puck Drop Grant, awarding an initial $50,000 grant to YouthCare to support their work to end youth homelessness in Seattle.
“We are so excited that Starbucks and the Kraken, two impact-driven community leaders, are joining forces to help expand access to resources and opportunities to Seattle-area youth,” said Suzanne Sullivan, Chief Advancement Officer of YouthCare, Seattle. “We look forward to building this partnership together to transform the lives of young people experiencing homelessness through employment, education, and community programs, for years to come.”
Additional partnership highlights include a program that invites one hundred community members to every Kraken game at Climate Pledge Arena as a way to celebrate and recognize local nonprofits, first responders, educators and other community heroes, as well as joint community service and engagement efforts supported by Starbucks partners (employees) and the Kraken.
Starbucks will also be the exclusive coffee served in Kraken Community Iceplex and the Climate Pledge Arena.
Advancing Equity in our Hometown
This partnership is a demonstration of Starbucks commitment to strengthening its hometown, building upon the company’s efforts to advance diversity, equity and inclusion and provide economic opportunity by investing in traditionally underserved, diverse communities across the country.
- Over the years, Starbucks has focused its community efforts on pressing issues in the Seattle area, including supporting unsheltered families and youth programming, addressing food insecurity including investing $360,000 to fight hunger in partnership with Northwest Harvest, and most recently, supporting COVID-19 response and equitable vaccine distribution across Washington state.
- Through community impact partnerships across our hometown, Starbucks focuses on community-building initiatives and engages our partners in programming and community service opportunities along with the University of Washington, the Seattle Seahawks, Sounders FC, the Seattle Theatre Group and the OL Reign.
- Since 2015, Starbucks, together with the Seattle employer community, has helped to raise over $13 million through the Mary’s Place No Child Sleeps Outside campaign to open emergency shelters and increase assistance to help families stay in their homes, as well as host Family Resource Exchange events around the region helping to connect thousands of families and children to vital, lifesaving resources. The Starbucks Foundation has also contributed more than $3 million to Mary’s Place to connect unsheltered families to critical resources and care to help them move into stable, permanent and safe housing.
- Additionally, over the past five years, The Starbucks Foundation has invested more than $7 million in nonprofit organizations in our hometown and Washington State, including more than $1 million in response to COVID-19 in Seattle and more than $340,000 in Neighborhood Grants to nonprofits in Washington state nominated by Starbucks partners.
