We've always believed in being involved in communities.

From the neighborhoods where our stores are located, to the ones where our coffee is grown – we believe in being involved in the communities we’re a part of. Bringing people together, inspiring change and making a difference in people’s lives – it’s all part of being a good neighbor. And it’s a commitment rooted in the belief that we can use our size to be a catalyst for change.

Action inspires action.

Our company mission to inspire and nurture the human spirit goes far outside the walls of our Starbucks stores. It means reaching out to our communities, and bringing together partners (employees) and customers to get involved in their communities.

We want to inspire action, and we’re asking our partners and customers from around the world to pledge to volunteer locally and have a goal to contribute more than one million hours of community service per year by 2015. One way we’re working to reach this goal is through Starbucks V2V (Volunteer to Volunteer), our online social network that helps connect volunteers all over the world.

We’re tapping into the natural potential of young people, too—empowering them to use their creativity and innovation to have a positive impact in their communities. Through the Starbucks Social Entrepreneurs Fund, it is our goal to inspire 50,000 young social entrepreneurs to help solve challenges in their communities by 2015.

Closer to home we’re working hard to create future opportunities for Young Britain. Through our work with the National Literacy Trust we are helping thousands of children and families to change their lives through literacy and through our work with The Prince’s Trust we are helping thousands of young people to gain the skills, confidence and experience they need to get on in life.

Our goal:

We will contribute over one million hours of community service per year by 2015.

Last year, we contributed 245,000 community service hours, and this year, we hope to double that and then add 100,000 hours annually. Our goal is to reach one million hours by 2015 and increase the difference we and our customers make in communities around the world.

Visit www.starbucks.com/sharedplanet to find out more about Starbucks™ Shared Planet™.