So a few months ago I heard about this email circulating on the internet about how a marine wrote to Starbucks asking if they would send coffee to the troops.  The marine stated that Starbucks refused saying they don’t support the war.  I knew this was crap as I was in Starbucks almost daily and always smiled at the big bin of coffee that was set aside for the troops and the big sign urging customers to write notes for the troops to be sent with the coffee.  I did my best to denounce this rumor then but this morning I received a text version of the email from one of my oldest and dearest friends.  She is ex-military herself and a current military wife whose husband has done several tours in the middle east.  She is a fierce advocate for the troops and thus wanted to spread the word to boycott Starbucks.  I had to correct her and then went searching for some ‘PROOF’ online that Starbucks doesn’t hate the military.  Interestingly there are several articles online dedicated to clearing this rumor up.  Here are 2 that explain it well…and one is the response on Starbucks’ website:

http://www.boycottwatch.org/misc/starbucks2.htm

http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/pressdesc.asP?id=684

Apparently due to the way the corporation is set up…IRS and tax codes and stuff I don’t understand…Starbucks is only allowed to donate AS A CORPORATION to Non-Profit organizations.  Individual military members and the US Military itself don’t qualify as a non-profit obviously so to get around this Starbucks began encouraging its individual employees to donate the free pound of coffee they receive a week and began encouraging customers to donate as well.  They started a program called “Coffee for the Troops” and asked people to write notes to be sent with the coffee as I described above.  Starbucks then gathers all the donated coffee from employees and customers and ships it.  And just to be clear, this started BEFORE the stupid email rumor started circulating. 

I was sorta “in the family” with starbucks for a while and all I ever experienced was a company that provided amazing benefits (even to part time employees) and really good pay.  I also know they are involved in a great deal of charitable work as well. 

This all makes me think about the stupid “obama hates america and white people and he’s a terrorist” crap that was going around on the internet.  And countless other emails encouraging people to boycott one brand/organization or another.  The internet is great but it is also a tool for propaganda and not everything you read is true.  Do your own research!