Starbucks will give away free cups of coffee to health workers and first responders who worked during the Covid-19 pandemic. “It has been an extraordinarily difficult year, especially for frontline rescuers serving our communities,” Virginia Tenpenny, vice president of Starbucks, said in a news release. “We want to show our deep gratitude to those who support and protect us every day with a small gesture of kindness and a cup of coffee”.
And so until the end of December, a customer “who identifies as a front-line responder to the COVID-19 outbreak” can walk into any Starbucks in the United States and receive a free coffee. The tribute also extends to other hospital staff, such as caretakers and security, mental health workers and active-duty soldiers.
The new promotion is an extension of a previous giveaway aimed at healthcare workers at the forefront of the Covid-19 pandemic, which took place from the end of March to May: that time, Starbucks distributed free coffee to all healthcare professionals worldwide. By the end of April, the chain said it had given away more than 1 million cups and says that number has doubled to over 2 million since then.
These giveaways are the latest in a series of actions the coffee chain launched during the pandemic. These include a $ 100,000 donation to the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the distribution of gift baskets and gift cards to 50,000 frontline rescuers.
