Starbucks partners with Send a Cow for fundraising campaign
The coffee shope chain, with the International Development charity, Send a Cow launched a nationwide fundraising campaign to support poor smallholder farmers in rural Rwanda.
The Big Cow Project is taking place throughout October, with nearly 700 Starbucks stores across the UK competing to raise funds of £650 - the equivalent of a dairy cow that can change lives for communities in Rwanda.
Aaron Swift, a Starbucks barista who originally launched the campaign last year, said, “I saw how these cows help improve coffee productivity, they provide organic fertiliser, improve household income and nutrition from the milk they produce, and they reconcile community relationships. These cows really are changing lives.”
This marks the first time that the project has been launched nationwide and everything raised throughout the month will be doubled by the government as part of UK Aid Match funding which Send a Cow has secured until 31 December.
Send a Cow Chief Executive, Simon Barnes said, ‘‘Aaron’s initiative is a wonderful example of how a small idea and a grassroots campaign can develop into a massive fundraising opportunity which will directly help hundreds of Rwanda’s poorest families. It’s incredibly inspiring and we’re extremely grateful to Aaron and his colleagues at Starbucks for rallying behind it.”
“The added bonus is that all of their efforts and their customers’ donations will be doubled by the government as part of the UK Aid Match funding which means we will be able to help even more of Africa’s poorest people. We’re expecting to see some pretty wacky fundraising activities over the next month, so I’m sure there’ll be lots of fun ways for people to get involved.’’
