Starbucks Partners with China Soong Ching Ling Foundation to Launch New Initiative

Starbucks Launches a Comprehensive COVID-19 Prevention Programme with the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation

Starbucks has been watching the pandemic closely. The company has announced a new programme developed with the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, titled Healthy China - Starbucks Supporting Grassroots COVID-19 Prevention.

According to media reports, the three-year programme will provide free, standardised online training in diagnosis and treatment to more than 90,000 grassroots medical staff drawn from over 3,000 hospitals nationwide. Through authoritative instruction on respiratory disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention, both partners hope to be better prepared for major respiratory diseases in the years ahead.

Media sources say the courses are designed and demonstrated by national-level respiratory disease experts. Progressive assessments are intended to cultivate China's first group of Chief Respiratory Physicians and Chief Health Managers, strengthening the ability of grassroots healthcare workers to prevent, diagnose, treat, and communicate about respiratory diseases, including COVID-19. The initiative will also establish permanent Healthcare Staff Spaces at Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, Wuhan Children's Hospital, and Xianning Central Hospital in Hubei Province, offering self-service relaxation facilities to healthcare workers who need them. Over the next three years, professional counsellors will provide free one-on-one psychological support at fixed times each week, building a psychological Great Wall for the frontline staff known as the angels in white, who have carried enormous pressure.

Starbucks' Ongoing COVID-19 Relief Efforts

Since the outbreak began, Starbucks has made a long series of efforts to fight COVID-19.

On January 25, 2020, in the early stages of the outbreak, Starbucks China donated 3 million RMB to the Chinese Red Cross Foundation to purchase protective clothing, masks, and disinfection supplies needed by healthcare workers in Hubei Province, particularly in Wuhan.

On January 30, 2020, Starbucks urgently transported and distributed nearly all available canned coffee beverages within Wuhan, including Starbucks Refreshers, 880 boxes in total and roughly 18,000 cans, to hospitals on the front line and to the under-construction Huoshenshan Hospital site. Besides providing free coffee to frontline epidemic prevention personnel, the Starbucks Foundation donated $500,000 to charitable organisations supporting frontline workers.

On April 2, 2020, the Starbucks Foundation announced donations of more than $3 million to public welfare organisations worldwide, helping communities fight the pandemic together. Of that total, $1 million, approximately 7 million RMB, was earmarked for Chinese public welfare organisations, entirely for projects intended to further strengthen China's ability to prevent and control major respiratory diseases in the future.

Also, on January 12 this year, Starbucks launched a $100 million fund to help small businesses and community development.

Statements from Leadership

Jing Dunquan, Vice Chairman of the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, said that since the outbreak of COVID-19 grassroots medical staff have been fighting on the front lines treating patients, and that the partnership with Starbucks allows both sides to explore more deeply how to improve grassroots epidemic prevention and control, contributing public welfare work toward advancing the Healthy China strategy.

Zhu Lei, Vice President of Social Impact and Government Affairs at Starbucks China, said the project should effectively improve the awareness and diagnostic management levels of grassroots medical staff regarding respiratory disease prevention and treatment, help the many medical staff on the clinical front line adjust their psychological state, and contribute long-term effort toward epidemic prevention and the Healthy China strategy.

Image source: Internet

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

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