Starbucks Coffee Company and The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN) have partnered since 2025 to help expand the brand’s FoodShare program beyond the United States to Asia Pacific. As Starbucks sought to expand its FoodShare program beyond the United States in a coordinated way, it needed a trusted global partner to adapt food rescue to local contexts and build the local capacity needed to ensure surplus food safely reached communities facing hunger. GFN’s reach and coordination across markets, grantmaking capabilities, and food safety, compliance, and due diligence assurances made us the ideal partner for this work.

The GFN and Starbucks have been partnering in two primary ways.

• Supporting food banks to help them become even more efficient and effective in food rescue and distribution, focusing on prepared food recovery, in conjunction with Starbucks FoodShare program.
• Partnering on Starbucks 15th anniversary of their annual Global Month of Good, where Starbucks donated the equivalent of 7 million meals to support communities where Starbucks partners (employees) volunteered across the globe.

What is FoodShare?

FoodShare was established in 2016 by Starbucks partners who championed a way for coffeehouses to donate unsold food to people facing hunger in communities across the U.S.

Today, FoodShare is available in 100% of company-operated coffeehouses across the U.S. and Canada. In partnership with the Feeding America network of U.S. food banks and other hunger-relief organizations, participating Starbucks locations provide nourishing, ready-to-eat meals to people facing hunger and divert surplus food from landfills.

As FoodShare expands outside of the U.S., Starbucks is working with GFN to adapt the program. Food banks operate in different contexts outside of the U.S., and GFN, member food banks and Starbucks are ensuring FoodShare is responsive to local contexts.

For example, SOS Thailand uses a food banking model not typically seen in the U.S.: decentralized distribution without a warehouse. But through daily pick-ups, SOS Thailand integrated food recovery with Starbucks into its existing routes and, last year alone, started collaborating with 78 new coffeehouses. 

Building QSR readiness

The collaboration with Starbucks enables GFN to do what it does best — support food banks in strengthening core operations, expanding existing programming and learning from each other to become even more effective at food recovery, in this case in partnership with Starbucks as well as the wider quick service restaurant (QSR) industry.

Through this partnership in the last 12 months:

• GFN provided Asia Pacific food banks with six grants and technical assistance, which included one-on-one calls and virtual webinars to fellowship exchanges and in-person visits from GFN staff.
• Starbucks was the sponsor of GFN’s Asia Regional Conference, where food bankers exchange ideas and best practices with their peers.
• GFN developed new resources for the network, like the Food Safety Manual for Donated Prepared Food and a Starbucks Retail Store Collaboration Toolkit. The toolkit outlines the coffeehouse donation and distribution processes, food safety practices, data tracking and reporting standards. The toolkit, which is based on models from SOS Thailand and Food Bank Vietnam, provides value for food banks in Asia developing donation programs with Starbucks or other quick service restaurants

Across the network, Starbucks funding helped food banks grow and expand.

• Food Bank Singapore: The partnership has supported major systems upgrades, enabling Food Bank Singapore to increase operational efficiency and expand warehouse capacity. Peer learning exchanges with other food banks in the region are also helping strengthen long-term growth.
• Food Bank Viet Nam (FBVN): FBVN deepened its Starbucks collaboration, expanding FoodShare to 37 stores in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and recovering surplus food, as well as coffee grounds and tea leaves that support five community gardens. The partnership has also helped accelerate FBVN’s transition into a national food bank network with new training systems and regional hubs.
• No Food Waste (India): No Food Waste expanded their service reach to Chennai and implemented a new mobile application for working with bakeries and other QSR donors.
• Rise Against Hunger Philippines (RAHP): Rise Against Hunger Philippines is using support from the partnership to design scalable food recovery systems. Lessons from existing FoodShare programs in other APAC markets are helping lay the groundwork for this work. Starbucks Philippines and RAHP are in discussions around FoodShare expansion.
• SOS Thailand (Thailand): Through the partnership, SOS Thailand expanded Starbucks FoodShare from 92 to 170 stores, redistributing more than 70,000 pounds of unsold food to communities facing hunger and strengthening the food banks’ ability to measure and communicate the environmental impact of food rescue.
• The Lost Food Project (Malaysia): The Lost Food Project used funding to develop a digital platform designed to scale food recovery through virtual food banking, while strengthening food safety systems. A pilot with Starbucks Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur is planned as the next step in expanding impact.

Global Month of Good

The second way Starbucks and GFN collaborated last year was through Global Month of Good, Starbucks annual initiative that unites partners to give back to communities and the planet. To incentivize and recognize partner action, Starbucks provided funding to GFN to be reinvested locally in markets where their partners volunteered. As a result, GFN provided grant funding and technical assistance to food banks across 26 countries.

In Canada, this funding supported Food Banks Canada’s capacity program to help the country’s food banks build the shared systems and infrastructure they need to work together as a network, such as regional solutions for recovering food from farms. This year, to make it possible for food banks to accept and distribute more food and, in particular, fresh food, Food Banks Canada distributed capacity-building grants across the country.

“Relieving and preventing hunger is hard work on the best of days, and it’s particularly challenging when record numbers of households in Canada are experiencing food insecurity,” said Kirstin Beardsley, CEO of Food Banks Canada. “Thank goodness food banks don’t do it alone. The Global Food Banking Network and Starbucks Global Month of Good contributions provide critical nourishment and an invaluable sense of support to people during tough times.”

“Starbucks is proud to partner with The Global FoodBanking Network to expand our commitment in strengthening communities across the globe,” said Kelly Goodejohn, chief social impact and sustainability officer at Starbucks. “Together, we’re advancing a shared goal to reduce food waste, operationalize food rescue and strengthen food banks globally, ensuring more communities have access to nourishing meals.”

“Working with SOS Thailand every day, after closing the store, my team and I pack the bakery items into boxes every day and write down the quantity. My store is the center point, and nearby stores at ICONSIAM First Floor and ICS also bring their bakery items together at my branch. Then the next morning, the SOS Thailand team comes to collect the bakery items. We do this every single day. Everyone in my team and the nearby stores does this together every day. It’s something that both I, as the store manager, and all of my team members, including the other branches feel truly proud to be a part of. We’re proud to be helping our community while also reducing food waste at the same time. It’s a great feeling to be part of this project”

Mr. Wanchana Sakpratheepkorn (Store Manager, Starbucks ICONSIAM Chao Phraya Riverfront Branch, 7th Floor)