Starbucks applauded a barista working at one of their branches for defending a breastfeeding mom against humiliation from a complaining middle-aged woman in Canada.

The story about Ontario Mom Julia Wykes breastfeeding her 5-month-old child brought about several opinions and went viral with almost 28,000 likes and 1,800 shares by Tuesday.

Like Us on Facebook

Posted in the website SheKnows, a blog written by Monica Beyer narrated how Starbucks barista Alex Kim came to Wykes's defense when a middle-aged woman marched up to the counter and loudly stated her complaint about the mother's breastfeeding in public.

After receiving the complaint, Kim told the customer that he would "take care of it" and walked over to Wykes. To her surprise, the teen-aged barista offered Wykes a free refill, handed her a voucher for a free drink and apologized. "I'm sorry you had to deal with such unpleasantness today," says Kim.

Realizing that her request was for naught, the complaining customer stormed out of the coffee shop without another word.

In an interview with SheKnows, Wykes stated her gratitude to the Starbucks barista saying: "To have a young man be more kind and informed than a middle-aged woman who may have had children herself was a shock."

"We want everyone who comes to our stores to enjoy their visit and to be treated with dignity and respect," Starbucks Canada Director of Public Affairs Louisa Girotto states in an interview with Yahoo Shine.

 "We were very pleased with the customer service our partner offered the woman who was breastfeeding, and I will reach out to him directly," she added.

In a statement, the Ontario Human Rights Commission said that women have "the right to breastfeed in a public area" and has declared that no one has the right to prevent a mother from breastfeeding her child simply because they are in public.

TagsStarbucks, Alex Kim, barista, applauded, breast-feeding Mom