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Collected Item: “Caffeine, Essentially”

Give your story a title.

Caffeine, Essentially

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

Photograph, taken on an Android smartphone

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

When news of the pandemic reached my area, one of my biggest concerns was whether or not I would be able to keep working. As a Starbucks employee, I wondered if what we did fell under the category of "essential worker". Sure enough, we are essential to many of the doctors, nurses, and other first responders who are truly essential in this time. Starbucks as a company immediately took precautions to be able to safely serve people who came to their establishments, as well as ensure the health of their workers. For the first two months of the pandemic, we operated as a drive-thru only store. It was truly startling to see all of the café furniture pushed to the walls, and once the sun came up it looked even more bizarre to see a quiet, empty area, where it is usually crowded and noisy.

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

#starbucks, #coffee, #lonely, #newnormal, #stayathome

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

Kristy Smith

Give this story a date.

2020-03-23
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