Seattle’s Best Coffee Pours a Cup of Good for Brew-lanthropy Award Recipient

This Spring, Seattle’s Best Coffee began the Brew-lanthropy Project, designed to reward those who are doing good in their communities with some great coffee. After launching a nationwide search that drew hundreds of nominations and thousands of votes on Facebook, Starbucks-owned Seattle’s Best Coffee is proud to recognize the faculty of Greene County Middle School as the recipient of the second-ever Brew-lanthropy Award. This deserving faculty is a source of hope to students in Snow Hill, NC as they recover from a tornado that devastated their community.

In March, Seattle's Best Coffee launched Brew-lanthropy -- a project dedicated to delivering great coffee to people doing great things. (Photo: Business Wire)

On April 16, Greene County Middle School fell victim to a storm that left 800 students without a school. School district officials estimated that 70 to 80 percent of the building sustained significant damage. The roof was torn off, the gymnasium was destroyed, most of the windows were broken by the high winds and many of the school’s resources were lost including text books and lesson plans. Immediately following the storm, district officials arranged for the middle school students to share facilities with Greene Central High School and the dedicated faculty of Greene County Middle School is back at work with their students. See the story here: www.facebook.com/seattlesbestcoffee.

"Our mission is to provide great coffee anywhere it's needed, and the Brew-lanthropy Project is a way to extend that mission,” said Michelle Gass, president, Seattle’s Best Coffee. "We admire the optimism of the Greene County Middle School faculty as they courageously transform their community during these extraordinarily trying times. Providing the staff with a great cup of coffee is just one simple way we can help make their tough tasks a little easier.”

As the recipient of the Brew-lanthropy Award, Seattle’s Best Coffee recognized the faculty of Greene County Middle School with a year’s worth of Seattle’s Best Coffee® and brewing equipment, a $5,000 donation and a coffee break area makeover by HGTV’s "Design on a Dime" star Frank Fontana. The makeover is a "mobile” makeover at the high school that can move with the staff when they return to the middle school building.

"We were devastated to see the county’s only middle school almost completely destructed after the storm," said Greene County Middle School Assistant Principal Leigh Corbin. "Greene County School Central Office and Board of Education have been working tirelessly with architects, building inspectors and structural engineers to salvage what we can and begin rebuilding. When we found out the school won the Brew-lanthropy Award, we were thrilled. We couldn’t be more thankful for the inspiration that this prize has brought to both the teachers and students.” For more information about the Brew-lanthropy Project, please visit www.facebook.com/seattlesbestcoffee.

About Seattle’s Best Coffee

Seattle’s Best Coffee, LLC has been roasting premium coffee since 1970 and today roasts more than 20 million pounds of coffee every year and millions of cups of our coffee are served every day. A freshly-brewed cup of Seattle’s Best Coffee is currently available in more than 50,000 locations including cafes, college campuses, restaurants, hotels, airlines, cruise ships, bookstores, grocery stores and movie theatres. Seattle’s Best Coffee is a featured brand within Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) and is ranked among the 10 best franchise opportunities by QSR Magazine (January 2010). For more information, please visit Seattle’s Best Coffee online at www.seattlesbest.com and become a member of the coffee community at www.facebook.com/SeattlesBestCoffee or @SeattlesBest on Twitter. For information about our retail franchise opportunity, please visit www.seattlesbestfranchise.com.

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