A good cup runs over at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
MANILA, Philippines - Caught in the daily grind, it is easy for us to overlook the basic human value of giving. If you have the opportunity to give while having your usual cup of coffee, would you?
“To give to others, one must first have something to give,” says Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf associate brand manager Nella Lomotan. “This is why, through all our initiatives, we encourage all our patrons to overflow.”
Now on its third year of the “Brew Your Best” campaign, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has been encouraging its patrons to give more mindfully through its coveted annual café planner.
“With our Giving Journal, we really made it a point to build people and help them grow to be the best of themselves: financially, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, because we want them to overflow. It’s not just about making a nice planner that people can use for the year. It’s become a medium for us to give back to our customers by giving them a journal that lets them brew their best versions of themselves, through inspirational challenges and activities. Hopefully, in the end, when they realize that they are brimming with opportunities to share, that will prompt them to give back. That is what we want to achieve,” Lomotan added.
This year Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s Giving Journal aims to give a gift that keeps on giving by partnering with non-governmental organization Real LIFE Foundation on the most rewarding and lasting present of all: education.
Chaired by Lynn Nawata, a Japanese-Canadian expatriate and retired multinational financial executive who devoted her time solely to charitable work in the Philippines, Real LIFE Foundation centers on encouraging and equipping young, less-fortunate students as they take on the bigger challenges of real life.
“Real LIFE Foundation was established in 2003 with the goal of establishing high school and university scholarships for the poor,” Nawata says. “To date, we have 26 scholarship programs all across the Philippines, from Laoag to General Santos, and more than 250 university graduates. Our goal is not just to give these young people a university degree, not just so they can finish school and just get any job and punch a time card. Our goal is really to empower their dreams.”
The LIFE in Real LIFE Foundation stands for “Leadership, Integrity, Faith, and Excellence,” and all their scholars are mentored on a weekly basis under these. “We also provide what we call ‘life skills,’ which is practical skills development because we want to give our scholars every opportunity to succeed, not just in school, but also in the real world,” Nawata said.
In just three years of partnering with Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Real LIFE Foundation has directly sponsored the university education of 21 scholars, 10 of which have already earned their degree, while three more are graduating this year.
“What we appreciate so much is that most of our scholars are the first in their family to graduate in the university and it’s amazing because most of them, even in their first job, can double, triple, sometimes even quadruple, their family’s previous combined household income. That’s why we believe so passionately in education, because it’s the most effective tool to lift a family out of poverty,” Nawata enthused.
One of these graduates is Ferdie Javier, who recently passed the engineering board exams last September. “For more than three years that I am a Coffee Bean scholar, it was only last year that I was able to drink coffee from Coffee Bean because in my perspective, the price that you pay for a single drink means so much for me. It can be my allowance for three days,” Javier said. “But one good thing about Real LIFE Foundation is that they break this poverty mindset: that we’re poor, we’re financially challenged. Real LIFE Foundation helped me to have a purpose in life, higher dreams, and the realization that there is something better I can do in this world. So, thank you, I would not be an engineer if not for your help, if not for Real LIFE Foundation, and if not for Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf,” Javier beamed, addressing Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Philippines president Walden Chu.
Chu says he never looks at CSR as a business decision. “To be honest, I don’t even think about how it comes back to us,” he admitted. “For me, if you can afford to spend an hour or two to enjoy a chai latte or cappuccino in one of our stores, you’re in a position to give back to your country in some way, shape or form. That’s really been the focus: how we get the hundreds of people who come into our stores every day to be called to action to serve and realize the realities of our country. At the end of the day, that’s what drives us. We’ve been doing this well before the company made money. It’s just the DNA of us being good Christian businessmen.”
So the next time you crave that steaming cup of chai, or holiday Red Velvet Latte, remember that you could be sending someone to school.
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Get your Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf 2015 Giving Journal with 12 specialty drink purchases or one purchase of the CBTL Single Serve Beverage System from Oct. 25 to Jan. 11, 2015 in all Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf outlets.
