At six on a Tuesday morning, we went to Starbucks’ second community store located in Maysilo Circle in Mandaluyong City where we met up with Starbucks Philippines’ hardworking partners.

From the moment we walked in, we were welcomed by the pleasant aroma of freshly-brewed coffee and a beautiful mural on the walls depicting images of books and the coffee plant.

Caught admiring the painting, we were approached by Arianne Munar, Starbucks Philippines' Assistant Manager for Media Management and Social Impact, who kindly explained, “Our murals are usually in our community stores. This is hand-painted by Tara Soriano called ‘Books and Beans.’ We have murals in other stores too, but this one is special as we tap local artists, and it has a story.”

Stories. Our Tuesday was filled with exactly that as we made our way to Barangay Addition Hills to participate in a volunteering activity that will provide nutritious meals for over 200 kids.

Being the first media partner to take part in one of Starbucks PH’s hunger relief initiatives, we were simply thrilled to be involved, learn more about how the company plays their role in addressing the pressing issues on hunger and malnutrition in the country, and how their partnership with Gawad Kalinga (GK) has put their desire to uplift communities in motion.

Addressing community needs and empowering youth

Starbucks does more than just serve good coffee and tasty pastries. In the Philippines, specifically, we’ve seen the brand become a go-to hang-out spot for various individuals from student study groups to professionals meeting with clients, or those who simply enjoy relaxing with a refreshing beverage. There’s a Starbucks in every mall and almost every few blocks, with smiling baristas — or as they like to call them, “partners” — ready to serve you your favorite drink.

But there’s more to this massive franchise than meets the eye as they also take part in a variety of charitable initiatives. In fact, the Starbucks Foundation has a 25-year history of investing in communities across the U.S. and globally. Their Global Community Impact Grants was designed to drive relevant impact in the communities where Starbucks operates around the globe.

Thus, the birth of Community Stores. From the outside, it may look like your regular Starbucks branch, so how exactly does it differ? The answer is in its purpose.

“A community store is a store within a community that supports the community.” Arianne explained. “So, what we do is we look for NGO’s to support. It’s a process so we do our best—our due diligence to find the best NGO to support.”

Starbucks PH’s Community Stores are an initiative born out of the company’s commitment to two of their pillars: Hunger Relief and Youth Education. The Maysilo store has all the things you can expect at a Starbucks, from its wooden interior to stylish seating, but with added warmth, which is reflected through its beautiful wall mural and mini library on the second floor where you can find several Children’s books from local authors and publishers such as Adarna House.

Arianne further explained to us what the Maysilo Community Store stands for and who it supports.

“For this store specifically, it also supports youth education through Mano Amiga. They have different communities that they strongly support so through them, we were able to meet Nayon ng Kabataan. They’re based here in Mandaluyong. So that’s who we support directly.”

The Maysilo Community store boasts the first community library found in a Starbucks store and is meant to encourage children to stay and read, the company’s way of “shaping a promising tomorrow, one empowered mind at a time.”

“This one specifically is just a follow-up,” Arianne added, referring to Maysilo being the second community store (the first being in Tondo) to commit to serving and providing economic opportunities for underserved communities in the country.

“Whenever it’s support for the community it’s always just one-off. But for us, it’s more than lip service. It’s really continuous support.”

More than just a feeding program

The Starbucks Foundation awarded a $50,000 Global Community Impact Grant to Gawad Kalinga — a Philippine-based non-profit organization (NGO) dedicated to eradicating poverty and restoring human dignity — to support the Kusina ng Kalinga+ (KnK), a food donation program that aims to bring children back to proper nutrition within 95 days.

The Beat Asia got to participate in one of their feeding programs, from food preparation to serving meals, which made for a fulfilling morning filled with smiles, laughter, and heartfelt moments.

We stopped by Addition Hills and spent a couple of hours at the humble home of Nanay Delia Estrellia, the kitchen manager, to cook and prepare the food. The place used to be her mini-store but has since been turned into their kitchen for the 60-day feeding program.

Together with the lovely nanays and barangay kagawads (officers) volunteers, we all got to work! The menu consisted of rice and “ulam (viand)", which for this activity was Chicken and Mushroom. The soupy dish was made with various nutritious ingredients like leafy vegetables, potatoes, and high-protein chicken. It was the perfect dish considering the rainy weather and has all the right components for a healthy and full meal.

Each of the Starbucks partners was all smiles as they took on their respective assignments. Whether it was peeling potatoes, chopping vegetables, or packing the food into recyclable containers, everyone did their part with vigor and enthusiasm. And to think, these partners spent the day with us out of the goodness of their hearts, using their personal leave to help support the feeding program.

Once the food was all ready to go, we drove them to Gawad Kalinga’s headquarters close by where we met up with the kids. We served up their meals, played games, and even did an impromptu song and dance performance with them, which made us realize that Starbucks and Gawad Kalinga are doing more than just serving up meals but also serving memorable, happy memories.

When asked about the impact of these programs, Executive Director of Gawad Kalinga, Dan Bercasio listed a few heartfelt reasons:

“Maraming impact (there are many)! Number one: Its impact on the children cannot be compared, because aside from the food that we serve, there are also the memories that will be ingrained in their hearts about a time when their big brothers and sisters from companies like Starbucks never left them behind. They will forever remember that,” he explained in Tagalog.

“Secondly, it also sends a very strong message that if we work together, we can end hunger in our lifetime.”

KnK+ is Gawad Kalinga’s strategic response to address chronic hinger and malnutrition among Filipino children aged 0 to 12 years old, and pregnant and lactating mothers in the first 1,000 days. Dan told us about UNICEF’s research, which revealed that there are 95 kids dying of malnutrition every single day.

“Hunger is very much connected to literacy,” he added. “If the child is hungry, it affects their brain development, especially in their formative years. It could cause permanent damage to their brains).”

“So, our intervention, while it’s just maybe one meal, two meals, or meals for 120 days, malaking bagay 'yan (it’s a big deal). It’s an investment in their lives and futures."

KnK is more than just a feeding program but is also about gathering people to help and take part in achieving zero hunger. With the expansion of their initiatives, KnK+ is innovating by taking more definitive action, called the 5M Approach. The strategy consists of:

Magtulungan, which aims to activate Zero Hunger Alliance in at least 80% of the provinces in the Philippines; Magpakain, covering supplemental feeding programs; Magpakalusog which promotes Health and Nutrition education and focuses on building healthy habits at home; Magtanim or community food farming which aims to makes vegetables more accessible; and Mag-connect, which is about using social media platforms to have wider reach, and engage more people online about the initiative.

The Zero Hunger Alliancewas formed in August 2022, which is the largest network of local implementers working on Sustainable Development Goal 2, Zero Hunger, for the Philippines.

“We’ve been holding Zero Hunger summits nationwide in different strategic areas to call on local partners from local government units (LGUs), local businesses, organizations, schools, and volunteers to work with us on Zero Hunger,” said Chelsea Paterno, Secretariat Head of the Zero Hunger Alliance. “Overall, the goal is to localize the response to hunger, that’s why we’ve been doing all these summits in different areas nationwide because hunger ends where caring begins.”

From its launch to July 2023, the Zero Hunger Alliance has made incredible progress and has served over 1.3 million meals to 225,556 kids, trained 665 health champions, and established 89 community food farms all in 376 Zero Hunger communities.

Speaking of food initiatives, the Starbucks Maysilo community store extends their support to hunger relief as well and will be rolling out the FoodShare program starting Oct. 1 which gathers rescuable food items on a daily basis and are sent to different beneficiaries. Starbucks Philippines is the first in Southeast Asia to pilot the food donation program in 2022, which is in partnership with the Philippine FoodBank Foundation and Grab.

Having witnessed and participated in their feeding programs and spoken with Starbucks Partners and the Gawad Kalinga team, we can truly see that the company is putting in the effort to do its part in supporting local communities and is consistent in its pursuit of achieving their social impact goals.

If the light in those children’s eyes and the bright smiles on their faces have anything to say, it’s that Starbucks PH is — quite literally — making good things happen, one good meal at a time. And we hope they’ll be able to encourage more people to take part and provide support for the sake of the country’s tomorrow: the Filipino youth.

Follow Starbucks Philippines on Facebook and Instagram for more updates on their hunger relief and youth education initiatives.