There is no doubt that hunger and poverty plague all parts of the world, but here at Hands On Atlanta, we make it our mission to mobilize the Atlanta community to tackle our city’s most pressing needs - providing opportunities to help serve the thousands of families who are in need of food and other essential resources. Each year, an estimate of 755,400 (1 in 7) people in Georgia turn to Food Bank partner agencies for food. 1 in 5 kids in Georgia live in food-insecure households. While we can’t solve all of the hunger problems facing our community, thanks to an impactful partnership with the Starbucks Foundation, Points of Light, and the Atlanta Community Food Bank, we’re now able to get more food to those in need.

Towards the end of May 2019, The Starbucks Foundation and Points of Light announced the expansion of the Starbucks Foundation Service Fellow Program, following a successful six-month pilot in 2018. As a result of the good news, we were able to welcome two new members to the Hands On Atlanta team, Shelly Banks and Steen Stuckey in September of 2019!

““I’ve always been interested in community service, and Starbucks continues to create new opportunities to stay within the company and get involved in new ways like this program, and I felt like it was a perfect fit!” ”

— Steen Stuckey, Starbucks Service Fellow

Here’s how the program works.

The goal of the Starbucks Foundation Service Fellow Program will do 2 things:

Enable local food pantries to provide more food to those in need.
Provide the Starbucks Foundation Service Fellows a unique opportunity to address a pressing community need.

The Starbucks Foundation Service Fellows work 20 hours in their store, while spending another 20 hours with Hands On Atlanta, helping build volunteer capacity at Atlanta Community Food Bank affiliate food pantries.

Shelly and Steen will provide training and consultation on volunteer management to 8 food pantries around metro Atlanta. Stretching from Lithonia to Newnan, more people will have access to more food, thanks to the help of their work! By helping the food pantries better engage volunteers in serving more food to their clients, our amazing fellows (Steen and Shelly) are tackling one of Starbucks’ global social impact priorities: hunger.

“The ultimate goal, from the Starbucks lens, is that these partners [Starbucks employees] are truly catalytic in their communities and that they inspire more partners to get engaged” ”

— Virginia Tenpenny, Executive Director of The Starbucks Foundation

Thanks to the program that the Starbucks Foundation and Points of Light have delivered, we can now strengthen our storied partnership with the Atlanta Community Food Bank by providing customized 1:1 support to their food pantries.

Meet the 2020 Hands On Atlanta Starbucks Fellows

Shelly Banks

“And now I’m doing this service fellowship, so it’s truly a great experience to work for a company that lets me explore so many different possibilities.””

— Shelly Banks, 2020 Starbucks Foundation Service Fellow

Shelly has been a partner at Starbucks since 2013, and enjoys working for the company because they provide so many different opportunities that she’s been able to be apart of. She went to college through the Starbucks College Achievement Plan program and obtained her degree. Shelly also completed the Coffee Master program, which provided her with a higher level of coffee knowledge and a cool black apron!

Steen Stuckey

“I think one of the best things about working at Starbucks is how much we focus on helping people develop professionally. And I think this is a very, very cool opportunity for that. I hope that more people get to take advantage of it.””

— Steen Stuckey, 2020 Starbucks Foundation Service Fellow

Arkansas native, Steen, moved to Atlanta about 2 ½ years ago with her wife of three years. Since the big move, she has been apart of the Starbucks family. After hearing about the Starbucks Service Fellows Program, she was excited to be apart of the fellowship since it aligned with her idea of a fulfilling life: giving back to the community. In the future, Steen hopes that the program continues to expand so that more opportunities are created for those interested in becoming a service fellow.

Learn more about this unique partnership happening in 20 cities across the country!

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