Coffee giant goes bananas

1 Volunteers from Starbucks helping farmers to plant banana plant saplings.2 The farmers are hoping for the bananas to have more commercial value. 3 Some of the banana-based products sold at Starbucks.4 Proceeds from the banana-based products sold at Starbucks go back to Kampung Lubuk Jaya in the form of a community computer centre for the children.5 Starbucks Malaysia human resource director June Beh (centre) and Salleharon (fourth from left) hand over the grant to Hope Worldwide Malaysia executive director Katy Lee (sixth from left) as E’ajis (third from right) and the children from Kampung Lubuk Jaya look on.

Kampung Lubuk Jaya, some 20 minutes away from Kuala Selangor is a tiny village with about 257 residents.

The homes of the 38 families are located within the oil palm estates, but the village’s best known product is no longer palm oil but Berangan bananas.