Starbucks Joins Meatless Monday Campaign, But There’s a Catch

Starbucks is joining the Meatless Monday campaign by offering two dollars off meatless menu items, but there's a catch: The discount only applies to vegetarian items and cannot be altered to be vegan.

For every Monday during the weeks of January 4th to January 25th, Starbucks will offer $2 off vegetarian items including the Impossible Breakfast Sandwich, Southwest Veggie Wrap, and Spinach Feta and Egg White Wrap. This Meatless Monday discount is great for vegetarians or anyone who is looking to ditch meat from their diet, although not optimal for strict vegans.

In order to get the discount, the menu items can't be altered in any way, such as no egg to make it vegan. The order also must be placed in-store rather than through a third-party delivery service like or Seamless or Uber Eats for the discount to apply.

Though Starbucks is taking strides to become more planet-friendly and plant-based, the popular coffee chain is falling short of meeting consumers' needs for a fully plant-based option. Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson vowed to become a "resource-positive company" with a five-step plan that included adding more plant-based items to the menu.

“We are proud to have a history of offering customers products that meet their lifestyles and taste preferences—including a variety of meatless food choices and alternative non-dairy milk—and our new January Meatless Mondays offer is another way we want to encourage customers to kick off the new year doing what’s best for them,” a Starbucks representative told VegNews.

In the past year, Starbucks has tested the Plant-Powered Breakfast Sandwich, made with mung-bean eggs and plant-based meat and Miyokos vegan cream cheese spread to top bagels in select locations, but no word on whether these items will be added to the US menu. The multinational coffee chain would cut its carbon footprint significantly and become more planet-friendly by adding dairy-free and egg alternatives to the menu permanently.

As much as we applaud Starbucks' efforts in joining the Meatless Monday Campaign, we're hoping 2021 will be the year the coffee chain becomes more planet-friendly and make it easier to eat plant-based while on the go.

For a full list of plant-based options at Starbucks, click here.