Starbucks and (RED) Extend Joint Project One Year

On October 31, POZ reported that mega coffee chain Starbucks had teamed up with Bono’s AIDS organization (RED) to donate a portion of sales from its holiday drinks—peppermint mocha twist, gingersnap and espresso truffle lattes—to help provide lifesaving AIDS meds to HIV-positive Africans. Because of the high number of (RED) drink sales during the past month, the program has been extended until December 31, 2009, Seattle P-I reports.

According to P-I calculations, Starbucks customers bought roughly 12 million (RED) beverages so far; the funds from those sales could supply year’s worth of antiretroviral therapy for 3,800 people.

The extended program will change, though. Instead of focusing on holiday drinks, on January 3, Starbucks will release a customer rewards card designed for its (RED) campaign. From January 3 until December 31, 2009, every time a customer uses the (RED) stored-value card to make a purchase, 5 cents will go to The Global Fund, an international financing institution geared to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria around the world.