Starbucks Surpasses 2,500 Partners Participating in Volunteer Activities in the First Half of the Year

Starbucks partners and singer Sean (bottom left) are participating in a non-face-to-face volunteer activity. Photo by Starbucks

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] Starbucks Korea announced on the 17th that the number of partners participating in the company's social contribution activities in the first half of this year has surpassed 2,500.

Due to social distancing and gathering restrictions caused by COVID-19, opportunities for face-to-face volunteer activities have been limited since last year, leading Starbucks to discover and implement new methods of volunteering.

The most popular recent volunteer activity is "plogging," which involves picking up trash while jogging. Instead of gathering at a specific location for group volunteer work, individuals select their own locations and certify their activities on their Instagram and Facebook accounts.

With the intention of practicing eco-friendly living in daily life, Starbucks partners engage in plogging activities by visiting nearby forests, parks, and streets around stores. To support this, Starbucks provided plogging practice kits to about 1,000 Starbucks partners.

Starbucks has also conducted plogging through the "Dureun Dureun Virtual Marathon" event held with singer Sean. The Dureun Dureun Virtual Marathon allows participants to set their own running distances and certify their trash-picking activities while jogging on their Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms. The event proceeds are used for a support project for youth aging out of care, conducted by Starbucks in partnership with the Beautiful Foundation.

In April and May of this year, tree-planting volunteer activities were also held in relay form at Seoul Forest Park. A minimum number of volunteers gather at designated times to carry out planting activities, and once finished, the next group of volunteers continues the planting work. The same style of volunteer activities is planned to be held five times at Seoul Forest Park in the second half of this year.