The Starbucks Foundation and Schultz Family Foundation announced on Tuesday their support of the annual No Child Sleeps Outside campaign by Mary’s Place.
Together with other businesses, they are joining an unprecedented effort to mobilize the community, and contributing more than $3 million to provide safe emergency shelter for the estimated 500 unsheltered families in King County including hundreds of children, according to a Starbucks media release.
The campaign also has the support of companies like Microsoft Corp., Dick’s Drive-In, Comcast, Alaska Airlines, Weyerhaeuser, Expedia, Nordstrom, Bank of America, Key Bank Foundation, Group Health, Seattle Mariners, as well as the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Seattle Association which together represent thousands of Seattle businesses.
Following a 20 percent jump in the homeless count last year, families with young children are waiting months for emergency shelter, leaving many sleeping on the streets, in cars and parks across the community.
The donations will support an immediate expansion of Mary’s Place, and responds to the critical, short-term need to bring unsheltered families inside.
Mary’s Place, which runs the annual No Child Sleeps Outside campaign, is a 17-year-old emergency shelter organization with six locations throughout the county that operates primarily with private funding. Mary’s Place provides emergency shelter to nearly 40 percent of families experiencing homelessness across King County – serving 115-120 families per night, and 400 families throughout the year. However, 20 families a day are still turned away because there is not enough capacity at these shelters.
“King County is facing an unprecedented homelessness crisis and more than 500 families are sleeping outside each night in places unfit for habitation,” said Marty Hartman, executive director of Mary’s Place. “It breaks our hearts to have to turn them away each day. We are so incredibly grateful for the support of our business partners like Starbucks, Microsoft, the Schultz Family Foundation and so many others who are making it possible for us to expand our services and bring more families inside to warmth, safety, and stability.”
In addition to a $1 million financial contribution to the No Child Sleeps Outside campaign, The Starbucks Foundation will match every dollar donated by customers in participating King County Starbucks stores between December 1-31, up to an additional $1 million dollars to help shelter local families. The Starbucks Foundation will also allocate an additional $250,000 to other local nonprofits including the United Way, YWCA, and Youth Care that connect homeless families and youth to job placement programs, and other critical services.
Howard and Sheri Schultz, co-founders of the Schultz Family Foundation, are also personally contributing $1 million to Mary’s Place through the Schultz Family Foundation to expand both shelter capacity and the organization’s ability to move families into permanent housing.
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