Opinion: One Starbucks gives the people what they want: a free warm-up

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WASHINGTON -- You know change is in the air when Starbucks, otherwise known as “Fourbucks,” hands out free cups of hazelnut hot chocolate.

But that was the case after manager Lashawn Simmons, 33, made the unilateral decision that people could use a warm-up.

“I just wanted to welcome everyone to Washington, D.C.,” she said, whipping up another round to distribute on the sidewalk, along with bite-sized chunks of doughnuts.

Pamela Godwin, an administrative assistant who had just walked off a tour bus from Irvington, N.J., gratefully accepted one and then took a snapshot of the Starbucks sign with her camera to make a memory — not of the free drink but of the location she was supposed to return to at 5 p.m.

“I don’t want to get lost. You never know with so many people,” she said, unfamiliar with Washington but determined to be here to watch a fellow African American take his place in history. “It’s going to be a blessed day.”

-- Faye Fiore

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