Barista Brings Starbucks to Troops Overseas

There aren’t any Starubucks coffee shops in the middle of Baghdad, but local barista Allison Sellick is doing her best to find a good alternative.

As the store manager of the Starbucks at the Arundel Mills shopping center, Sellick is kicking off her annual “coffee for the troops” program, sending pounds of coffee to local troops deployed overseas.

Patrons heading to the nearby Starbucks are able to purchase a pound of coffee or Starbucks’ instant VIA soluble coffee, write a note on the product and then mail it to troops specifically from the Fort Meade area.

“I wanted it to specify that the coffee goes to troops from the area and only to troops that are overseas,” Sellick said. “It’s not that I’m not appreciative of the ones domestically, but I know it’s hard over there.”

Sellick personally knows the pain of separation and sending a loved one overseas for military service.

Five years ago in 2006, her husband Jeremy left for Iraq to serve in the U.S. Army. It was then that Sellick thought of the highly-popular coffee program.

“It’s a good way to give the troops something from home,” Sellick said. “And it’s really caught on.”

One could wonder if coffee would be a desirable product amid the scorching temperatures of Afghanistan and Iraq, but Sellick said the troops really gobble up the Starbucks.

“Jeremy would just put them in the ‘Chow Hall’ and the troops would just grab a pound and keep going,” she said.

A year after Sellick started the program, locals began asking her if she planned on doing the program again, and it’s been going on ever since.

Knowing that the coffee is going specifically to local troops, some of Sellick’s baristas have even written personal notes to their friends overseas, hoping their donation makes its way into the hands of someone they know.

Now five years after the program's inception, the local Starbucks is already gathering quite a donation for hometown troops.

“We have over 100 VIA packs donated right now and maybe 20 pounds of coffee,” said barista Jeremy Pope. “It’s a sizeable amount.”

Sellick hopes the aroma of Arabica beans and sound of brewing coffee can lessen the sound of gunfire and the stench of desert sweat.

The “coffee for the troops” program continues through Dec. 22. To contribute, visit Sellick’s Starbucks location on Arundel Mills Boulevard, next to Flippin’ Pizza.