Since Starbucks began donating a portion of its sales on Nov. 27, customers have generated contributions equal to more than 1.4 million daily doses of antiretroviral medicine, which would provide a year of therapy to more than 3,800 Africans with HIV, the company said Thursday.
This means that Starbucks customers have bought roughly 12 million (RED) beverages so far, according to the Seattle P-I's calculation. (It costs 43 cents per day to keep someone alive, and since 5 cents from a beverage goes to the fund, Starbucks has to sell 8.6 beverages for one day's worth of medicine for one person.)
The Starbucks beverages that help the fund are peppermint mocha twist, gingersnap latte and espresso truffle. (RED) products do not cost extra.
Also Thursday, Starbucks gave details on how it would continue its partnership with (RED) in 2009.
(RED) is a private organization that benefits health programs in Africa through the Global Fund. Rock singer Bono and Bobby Shriver (President John F. Kennedy's nephew) founded (RED) in 2006 to benefit the Global Fund. It works with other companies, including Apple, Dell, Gap and Microsoft.
On Jan. 3, Starbucks will release a new type of customer rewards card designed for its (RED) campaign. From Jan. 3 until Dec. 31, 2009, every time a customer uses the (RED) stored-value card to make a purchase, 5 cents will go to the Global Fund.
Before this announcement, it was unclear what Starbucks' partnership with (RED) would look like in 2009. Currently, 5 cents from the sales of certain types of holiday beverages go to the fund, but Starbucks has said that the partnership would change once the holiday beverages finished the season.
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