NEWS: Starbucks Challenge 2.0 Awards

After reading through 176 participating blogs, with 230 challenges taken in 13 countries, 29 states (welcome Tennessee!), and Washington DC, City Hippy and green LA girl have picked winners for the second month of the Starbucks Challenge.

LA County Winner: Roger, gone green.
Roger, a stay-at-home -- or should I say stay-at-Starbucks -- dad, took a bunch of challenges, and even started an entire blog dedicated to Starbucks Challenges!

Award: A 12 oz bag of Monkey & Son Velvet Hammer fair trade organic coffee.

US Winner: Kristin in Boise, Idaho.
Although she's not a blogger, Kristin took a few challenges herself -- and even roped her hubby into taking a few during his business trips! Kristin's also a fair trade chocolate advocate, and pointed green LA girl to this interesting chocolate site.

Award: A 12 oz bag of Monkey & Son Velvet Hammer fair trade organic coffee.

International Winner: Declan of Dec's Rambling.
Dec took a bunch of challenges, including two at brand spankin' new Starbucks that just opened up in Dublin. He also wrote about the challenge quite regularly, sometimes despite himself: "Another Starbucks posting, I should just rename this blog Dec's Starbucks Rambling."

Award: Fair trade yummies from Clipper-Teas.com.

What did YOU help accomplish through the Starbucks Challenge? The bad news: Starbucks sent out another email to its stores, which, again, was rather ineffective. The Challenge success percentage has actually GONE DOWN since the first month.

Now, the good news: The mermaid also set up a meeting for Dec. 16 in the LA area, which'll bring bloggers together with Starbucks baristas, managers, and CSR reps. Starbucks also said it'll include a lil video tutorial about the French-press-on-demand policy for its "store partners," beginning May 2006.

Clearly, Starbucks has overpromised and underdelivered on its fair trade claims -- and admitted it. Where do we go from here? Stay tuned: A new annoucement to come in the next couple days!

Have a fair trade day :)

City Hippy and green LA girl

PS Can I just add how grateful I am for all the hard work that green LA girl has done especially recently with the birth on mini-hippy soaking up most of my time. She is a star...take a bow Siel! [Wild Applause]

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