Starbucks Year in Pictures: Celebrating great moments in 2024
From big moments such as the first ever North American Barista Championship and a new chief executive officer, to quieter ones such as a connection between a customer and barista, Starbucks photographers were there to capture them.
Our best memories are rooted in a feeling – like how it felt to walk across the stage to get your college diploma or your first day at a new job. Sometimes they are quieter moments, like sharing a cup of coffee with a friend or being reunited with a favorite barista. On their own, each memory is meaningful, but together they become part of a dynamic tapestry, something to help us remember, but also to add to as we go into the future.
Each year, Starbucks visual storytellers put together a photo essay of some of our most meaningful moments. We had a lot of them in 2024 – a year where we celebrated our first North American Barista Championship, opened the first of many coffeehouses to be designed with features to make them more accessible for all, found new ways to support the communities we serve, renewed our commitment to being the purveyors of the world’s finest coffee, welcomed our new chief executive officer Brian Niccol – and much more.
This year, Starbucks made a vow to get Back to Starbucks, back to all those things that make our coffeehouses places to make memories, where everyone can come together for both the big and small moments of life.
Take a look:
Celebrating Barista Champions
Crafting an incredible cup of coffee for our customers is an art, married with knowledge and passion. In recognition of that, Starbucks has long held barista championships in various regions around the world where participants are rated on their coffee knowledge, ability to adapt quickly under pressure and on creating a signature beverage and much more. This year, Sumayyah Eid from Jordan (top photo) was the winner for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region and Luis A. Cervoni Caraballo from Puerto Rico (bottom photo) won the Latin America and Caribbean Barista Championship, held at Hacienda Alsacia, Starbucks coffee farm in Costa Rica.
During 2024, we also held the first North American Barista Championship at the Starbucks Support Center in Seattle. Out of an original group of 17,000 baristas from Canada and the U.S., Darcy Todd of Arlington, Texas, was named the winner, alongside Adrian Mata Pantoja of Tempe, Arizona and Holly Kang of Vancouver, Canada.
Serving our communities
Starbucks believes that we should contribute positively to the communities we serve. It’s that simple.
Each year, during Starbucks MLK Week of Good, to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., partners all around the country volunteer to work alongside local organizations on causes that are important to them.
In 2024, from Miami to Los Angeles, from Seattle to New York City, hundreds of partners volunteered revitalizing public schools, packing meals, cleaning up streets, providing resources for houseless neighbors and even supporting student film projects. This year, The Starbucks Foundation also donated gift cards to more than 5,000 non-profit organizations across North America to fuel volunteers in advancing their missions.
Coffee is our heart
Starbucks was founded on a love for high quality coffee — handcrafted by our outstanding green apron partners and enjoyed with intention. Coffee is our heart. For some, a cup of coffee is a daily ritual, or a conduit to connect with a friend. For others it’s a key part of a cultural ceremony. For those going through a hard time, it can be a taste of home or a cup of comfort. For the 100 million customers were serve each week in 88 markets around the world, it’s also an opportunity to connect.
The coffee we serve in our coffee houses is expertly handcrafted and the final step in an incredible, global, coffee-production story that begins with the more 450,000 farmers around the world who grow it, agronomists, roasters, buyers, engineers, Green Apron baristas and more.
To help Starbucks partners immerse themselves in the origins of coffee on our farms, each year selected partners, including baristas, those from manufacturing, the support centers and operations, are invited to go on an Origin Experience trip to Costa Rica, Indonesia or Rwanda. In 2024, around 1,000 partners, met farmers, agronomists, exporters and buyers; planted coffee seedlings and harvested coffee cherries; saw how coffee is grown and processed and learned more about our Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices, the cornerstone of our ethical sourcing approach.
Earning a degree with Starbucks College Achievement Plan
Since the start of the Starbucks College Achievement Plan in 2014, more than 15,000 partners have graduated with a first-time bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University’s online program. Today, more than 25,000 partners are participating in SCAP and receiving 100% upfront tuition coverage.
In May, our photographers were there when SCAP graduates walked the field for spring commencement in Tempe, Arizona. This month, 1.000 more will be receiving their degree.
Each graduate has their own unique story. Some graduates are the first in their families to earn a college degree. Others are military veterans who served their country before going to college. Graduate Kayln Denton (second row, left) starred SCAP as a partner at Starbucks in 2020 before deploying with FEMA during the COVID-19 pandemic. She later returned as a barista to continue her education. Engaged couple and Starbucks partners Josh Paz and Melissa Addiego (shown dancing) went through the SCAP program together to graduate at the same time. Graduate June Walker-Tillett, (shown tossing her cap), juggled school, cancer treatments, and also served as a mentor to those in her store, while she earned her degree.
Making our coffeehouses more inclusive for all
In February, Starbucks opened our first store to be built as part of our inclusive design framework that will guide all new store construction and renovation in the United States going forward. The store, in the Union Market Neighborhood in Washington, D.C., has a number of features designed to make it more accessible to customers and Starbucks partners, such as power operated doors, customer order status boards, optimized acoustics and lighting for improved visual and audible communication and more.
The store also features a mural created by Ryan Seslow, a New York City artist and college professor of digital art and design who identifies as Deaf and hard of hearing. The wrap-around wall mural features people who experience the world in a multitude of ways – including someone who uses sign language, another who uses a wheelchair and another with a service dog, all coming together to enjoy coffee. It’s designed to help spark conversations around disability, accessibility and inclusion – conversations he himself has had around topics like understanding his place in the world.
Neighborhood Grants
Every neighborhood is unique – and because we know that our store partners know their communities best, each year The Starbucks Foundation invites partners and alumni to nominate local, community-led nonprofits for small grants. The Neighborhood Grants program also helps build sustained local impact and inspires partners to engage with nonprofits all year long.
In 2024, to celebrate the fifth year of the Neighborhood Grants program, The Starbucks Foundation awarded $5 million to more than 2,800 local organizations across North America nominated by Starbucks partners. Just a few of the recipients our photographers visited included (clockwise from top left): The PARC in Amarillo, Texas, serving those experiencing homelessness; Covenant House, New York City, which serves youth who are homeless; Prism United in Mobile, Alabama, serving LGBTQ+ youth and their loved ones; and Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth in Las Vegas, helping young people move into stable housing.
Going ALL.IN
This summer, hundreds of young people, along with their families, came to the Kraken Community Iceplex in Seattle to get school supplies and to make connections with social service agencies. It was just one of the dozens of events held across the United States each year since the pandemic when members of the Starbucks Partner Networks decided to join together to take action to help support their communities.
Over the years, it’s turned into a collaboration called ALL.IN between Starbucks Partner Networks (partner-led groups that bring together people with shared identities and experiences), our Starbucks coffeehouses, nonprofits, food banks and government agencies.
Starbucks gets a new ceo – and a plan to get Back to Starbucks
In September, Starbucks welcomed Brian Niccol as the new chairman and chief executive officer. He’s known for his focus on people and culture, brand, menu innovation, operational excellence and digital transformation – and he quickly laid out a transformative vision for our company: to get Back to Starbucks.
“Our stores have always been more than a place to get a drink,” he wrote in an open letter to partners, customers and stakeholders. “They’ve been a gathering space, a community center where conversations are sparked, friendships form and everyone is greeted by a welcoming barista. A visit to Starbucks is about connection and joy, and of course great coffee. …Today, I’m making a commitment: We’re getting back to Starbucks. We’re refocusing on what has always set Starbucks apart — a welcoming coffeehouse where people gather, and where we serve the finest coffee, handcrafted by our skilled baristas. This is our enduring identity.”
