Starbucks will unveil its new plan to bring in 10,000 military veterans and active-duty spouses as new employees over the next five years on Wednesday.
CEO Howard Schultz is slated to give details on the bid at Starbucks headquarters in Seattle, Wash. Schultz has drawn out a program that will require an added 500,000 employees to join the company, in a vigorous move for global expansion, the Seattle Times reported.
This decision came to fruition at the same time that the United States government began scaling back on the number of American soldiers in Afghanistan, leaving more than a million citizens with the difficult task of shifting from life in the military to life as a civilian.
Former Secretary of Defense and CIA director Robert Gates, who now is a member of the Starbucks company board, will accompany Schultz during Wednesday's announcement.
"This is, in my view, not charity or philanthropy. But in fact, this is good business," Schultz told reporters on Monday. "These are highly skilled, highly trained people who have significant leadership capabilities, who will add value to Starbucks."
As part of its new expansion program, Starbucks will also turn two cafes - one in Lakewood, near Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) and another location in San Antonio - into "community stores" where a portion of each sale is donated to local nonprofit organzations. At the Lakewood location, Starbucks will invest 10 cents per sale to Goodwill program Operation: GoodJobs, which provides services to veterans looking for work post-service. According to the Seattle Times, The San Antonio Starbucks has teamed up with Vested in Vets, another Goodwill program, to give donations for each sale.
Around 8,000 people are expected to be released each year from military installation home JBLM, and many of them will stay in Pierce and Thurston counties, where they'll begin the difficult period of transitioning back to civilian life, according to Tacoma Goodwill CEO Terry Hayes. Finding work for vets can be trying, and at times, fruitless. The psychological effects of moving from daily battles and high-stress environments back to mainstream society also leaves veterans struggling with the upheaval.
"It's a difficult transition for a lot of young veterans," Hayes told the Seattle Times. "We figure out what military experience they had and find companies that would look upon them as terrific assets."
Operation: Goodjobs has reportedly aided around 350 veterans and their partners in the move back to mainstream society over the past 18 months.
Starbucks isn't the only corporation that has extended programs to help employ veterans - Wal-Mart in January announced it would hire each veteran who applied for a job within a five year time period following discharge. Microsoft also has headed up a pilot program at JBLM to teach veterans skills that would render them eligible for employment with the company as entry-level software testers.
"It's not enough until every veteran has a job," Starbucks director Gates told the Times. "[Businesses] have stepped up over the last year or so, from Wall Street to Main Street, in committing to hire a significant number of veterans."
