Starbucks donates $1.5 million to school charity in fast-growing Chinese market

Starbucks donates $1.5 million to school charity in fast-growing Chinese market: "starbucks donates $1.5 million to school charity in fast-growing Chinese market

By JOE MCDONALD
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

BEIJING -- Starbucks Corp. on Tuesday announced a $1.5 million donation to train grade school teachers in China, raising its profile in what chairman Howard Schultz said is the gourmet coffee chain's No. 1 growth market.

The donation is the first from a $5 million fund announced earlier by Seattle-based Starbucks for charity projects in China. The company opened its first Chinese outlet in 1999 and now has 220 locations in 18 cities.

'No market to date potentially has the opportunities for us that China ultimately will,' Schultz said after a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, the seat of China's legislature, to announce the school donation."