Last week, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz raised a lot of eyebrows with the launch of an ill-received campaign to start a public discussion about racial issues by having employees write or sticker cups with “race together.” On Sunday, the company pulled the plug on the cup-marking portion of the project, but Schultz says it’s not the end.

The Seattle Times reports that Schultz has penned a letter to Starbucks employees saying that the Race Together initiative is “far from over,” and explaining that the idea of writing on cups was “just the catalyst for a much broader and long term conversation.” According to Schultz, this portion of the campaign was only intended to last for a week.

“While there has been criticism of the initiative — and I know this hasn’t been easy for any of you — let me assure you that we didn’t expect universal praise,” wrote the CEO.

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