Starbucks employees help New Orleans

28 October 2008

NEW ORLEANS- Thousands of Starbucks employees, in New Orleans for a corporate leadership meeting, are painting houses and planting trees this week.

The volunteer Katrina Relief project is the largest short-term volunteer effort by a U.S. corporation, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported Tuesday. Starbucks said that the 10,000 executives, managers and staffers in New Orleans are expected to put in a total of 50,000 person-hours this week.

The conference is the first the giant coffee chain has held away from Seattle, where the Starbucks has its headquarters.

Kristin Gisleson Palmer, director of Rebuilding Together New Orleans, said that 4,000 of the Starbucks volunteers are working with her group.

"This is the largest single volunteer corporation effort I've ever seen, and I've worked with hundreds of corporations," Palmer said.

Starbucks has also given cash grants to Palmer's group and other New Orleans organizations.

The Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) volunteers are scheduled to be on the streets and in the parks through Thursday.