Multi-Faith Clergy Asks Coffee Chains to Not Charge Extra for Milk Alternatives as an Issue of Fairness 

A multi-faith coalition of Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jewish leaders is urging the nation’s largest coffeehouse chains to immediately stop charging extra for plant-based milk alternatives, calling it “unethical” and “unfair”. 

Coffeehouse chains like Starbucks, Dunkin’, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Caribou, Dutch Bros, Biggby, Peet’s, Human Bean, PJ’s, etc., roughly charge on an average about 70¢ extra per cup when a customer opts for plant-based milk alternatives made of oat, soy, almond, coconut in place of milk in their drinks. 

Senior Episcopal priest in Connecticut, Father Thomas W. Blake, Greek-Orthodox clergyman in Nevada, Father Stephen R. Karcher, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, renowned Buddhist minister Reverend Matthew T. Fisher, esteemed Jewish rabbi in California-Nevada ElizaBeth Webb Beyer, and Senior United Methodist Pastor Reverend Dawn M. Blundell in a joint statement reminded coffeehouse chains to follow their own respective callings of ethical business practices and doing the right thing by fixing this issue of unfairness. 

“A coffee company should not be in the business of taxing individuals who had chosen the plant-based lifestyle and thus dairy-free milk alternatives for dietary restrictions, ethical issues, health risk worries, environmental concerns, lactose intolerance, milk allergy, increased prostate cancer risk, unease at antibiotics-hormones-pesticides, animal welfare, etc.”, Blake, Karcher, Zed, Fisher, Beyer, and Blundell wrote. 

“The holiday season was a good time for coffeehouse chains to renounce mercantile greed and promote equality, thus earning some good karma and goodwill by making plant-based milk alternatives more accessible to every customer by removing the surcharge barriers”, Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, suggested. 

These Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jewish religious leaders urged CEOs and Board Chairs of big coffeehouse chains not to continue to blatantly ignore their sweet-sounding missions-values-visions of making a massive difference in the lives of customers and instead show some truth in their apparently community-focused slogans by immediately dropping this surcharge for choosing plant-based milk alternatives.