Starbucks Connecting Communities Project

January 5, 2016

Starbucks Connecting Communities Project

Gaya Travel team felt honoured to be given the opportunity to join and experience the process of making Starbucks’ mengkuang-based products in Felda Chini Timur 01 last 26 and 27 October 2015.

Celebrating Starbucks’s 15th anniversary in 2015, Starbucks Connecting Communities Project (SCCP) was introduced as a project designed to connect the local community with Starbucks in a way that benefits both parties.

The first SCCP project was caried out at Kampung Lubuk Jaya, Kuala Selangor. Under this programme, Starbucks obtained the supply of bananas from this village for their banana-based edible products such as muffins, biscotti and pastries. The successful partnership between the villagers and Starbucks resulted in a huge success whereby a substantial amount of money was generated and later used to build a Community Computer Center. The centre provides a place where children and even adults from the village get the chance to use computers to further enrich their capabilities and skills.

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In an effort to continue giving back to the local community, Starbucks launched the second SCCP by partnering with Craft CT 01 Enterprise, a small business with huge potential located at Felda Chini Timur 01 in Pahang that produces mengkuang-based products since nine years ago. The collaboration gives birth to the cheerful mengkuang hot cup sleeves, coasters, placemats, cardholders, pouches, and bookmarks, all can be bought from 50 Starbucks stores in Malaysia at prices ranging from RM6.90 to RM38.00. Some of the proceeds will be returned to Felda Chini Timur 01 community.

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Mengkuang is a pandanus plant that grows tall with thorns and thrives in Malaysian mangroves and jungles. This plant is commonly used in creating Malaysian handicrafts such as bags, mats and hats. These days, due to the reduction of rainforests and mangroves, mengkuang is becoming harder to find. There are also fewer people these days who are still passionate towards this craft, threatening it to extinction if no effort is being taken to conserve it.

The process of making products from mengkuang starts from getting the right leaves, cutting it into appropriate sizes, and smoking the leaves to soften them. Next, the thorns are removed and the smoked leaves are cut into smaller sizes using a custom-made knife. The smaller-sized leaves are ‘massaged’ using a designated knife-like instrument to further soften them. The leaves are then soaked in water overnight before being dyed. Once the leaves are dried and perfectly dyed, the weaving process starts. The mengkuang leaves are weaved into a certain size that later will be cut into smaller shapes required to make particular products.

If you think the early stages of processing mengkuang is laborious, wait until you have to weave it, which is actually even harder. And these days, there are not that many people who know how to weave. We personally tried each step in making the mengkuang-based products and can vouch that it is definitely no small feat.