• Planting Hope has added two new board members, Jessica Gleeson and Kevin Phelps.
• These changes add one new board seat, bringing total company director seats to six.

CHICAGO, IL and VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / December 14, 2023 / The Planting Hope Company Inc. (TSXV:MYLK)(OTCQB:MYLKF)(FRA:J94) ("Planting Hope" or the "Company"), a dynamic Foodtech innovation company dedicated to creating breakthrough delicious, sustainable food and beverage solutions through cutting-edge ingredient, formulation, and packaging technology, is pleased to report the appointment of two new members of its board of directors, Jessica Gleeson and Kevin Phelps.

• Jessica Gleeson - FOODSERVICE AND CHINA EXPERTISE: Jessica has served on the Planting Hope Advisory board as lead advisor since July 2023, and was helpful with the Company's evaluation and acquisition of Argo Tea. Jessica resides in Shanghai where she is currently the CEO of Brighter Beauty; she moved to Shanghai in 2007 when she was tasked with launching Starbucks into China after seven years on the Starbucks management team in Seattle. Jessica spent four years scaling Starbucks across Greater China, then opted to remain-in country ongoing, taking a leadership role with The Walt Disney Company, and subsequently with Claire's Accessories. With more than a decade of expertise in developing top-quality cutting edge café experiences, Jessica has strong knowledge around optimizing world-class café processes and operations. Over the past 15 years of developing Western businesses in China, Jessica has become an expert in the strategic and cultural approach to ensuring a solid foundation and ongoing success in one of the world's largest and fastest-growing and evolving marketplaces.
• Kevin Phelps: - CFO AND FINANCIAL EXPERTISE: A former CPA, Kevin has extensive board and CFO experience. Kevin began his career with Price Waterhouse, and from there was recruited to the Eastman Kodak Company, joining the team that spun Kodak's Bio-Products Division into international bio-chemicals company Genencor International, Inc. At Genencor, Kevin served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Kevin later joined Trillium Group, LLC, a regional private equity firm; as a partner at Trillium, Kevin has underwritten and managed a portfolio of life science and technology companies, often serving as Board Member and fractional CEO and/or CFO for Trillium's portfolio companies. From 2020 to 2022, Kevin served as CEO/CFO of Immune Therapeutics Inc., a publicly traded Florida-based drug development company. Kevin now consults with several technology companies and serves on a number of early-stage Boards of Directors including OyaGen, Inc, Arev Life Sciences Global, Ingenuity, Inc. and ZAAZ, Inc.

Amanda Helming has resigned from the Planting Hope board of directors, concurrent with her recent acceptance of new employment in a role that restricts her participation in outside boards.

With the above changes, Planting Hope has enlarged the total seats on its board of directors from five to six.

"We are thrilled to add the expertise of Ms. Gleeson and Mr. Phelps to our board of directors," said Julia Stamberger, CEO and Co-founder, Planting Hope. "Jessica brings decades of deep knowledge in café and Foodservice execution with Starbucks, as well as consumer brand building experience with her time at Claire's and Disney, and she is extremely skilled at doing business in China and importing consumable products into the Chinese market. Currently based in Shanghai, Jessica has a front-row seat to the fast-evolving consumer beverage scene in China, from tea to coffee to iced beverages."

"Kevin has strong experience as a CFO and CPA, and with publicly traded companies, and brings knowledge and deep expertise in fundraising for emerging businesses to Planting Hope," continued Ms. Stamberger. "We are thrilled to augment the financial expertise on our board of directors with his appointment."

"I would like to personally thank Amanda Helming for almost two and a half years of service to Planting Hope and its shareholders in her role on the Board of Directors and wish her well in the next stage of her career," Ms. Stamberger concluded.

About The Planting Hope Company Inc.

Planting Hope is reimagining and reinventing food today so that our planet can feed 10 billion people tomorrow. A Foodtech-driven company at the forefront of sustainable consumer food and beverage evolution, Planting Hope transforms nutrient-dense, widely cultivated crops into innovative, nutrient-rich products that reimagine pantry staples in the largest, fastest growing global food categories.

Our award-winning breakthrough brands, including Hope and Sesame Sesamemilk, RightRice High-Protein Veggie Rice, and Mozaics Real Veggie Chips, are not only disrupting global markets but also significantly reducing environmental footprints. Available across the US and Canada in grocery retailers (Whole Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Markets), through foodservice operators (CAVA Mediterranean restaurants - NYSE: CAVA), and e-commerce and alternative retail channels (Amazon, QVC), our products blend culinary innovation with advanced technology, offering breakthrough products with wide moats. Our products are poised to disrupt global food and beverage categories, make a positive impact on the world, and provide investors with valuable opportunities in the growing sustainable food market.

This is the food that Gen Z is demanding and that Gen Alpha will grow up with: this is the future of food.

Explore more at plantinghopecompany.com, sign up for Planting Hope news emails HERE and follow us on LinkedIn.

For Planting Hope product sales and distribution opportunities, please contact James Curley, EVP of Sales, at james@plantinghopecompany.com.

Contacts

Company Contact:
Julia Stamberger
CEO and Co-Founder
(773) 492-2243
julia@plantinghopecompany.com

Investor Relations + Media Contact:
Elyssia Patterson
VP of Investor Relations
(312) 675-4996
Elyssia@plantinghopecompany.com

Media Contact:
Corinn Williams
(773) 492-2243
Corinn@plantinghopecompany.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" (collectively referred to hereafter as "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements that address activities, events, or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will, or may, occur in the future, including, but not limited to, statements about the Company's ability to execute on its goals, the timing pertaining to these goals the potential demand for the Company's products, the timing and success of anticipated product launches and distribution of the Company's products, the Company's business prospects, future trends, plans, scalability and strategies, that the Company will achieve profitability in the next few years, the timing of the Company's implementation of NetSuite, and the Company's key growth priorities for 2023 . In some cases, forward looking statements are preceded by, followed by, or include words such as "may", "will," "would", "could", "should", "believes", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "continues", or the negative of those words or other similar or comparable words. In preparing the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, the assumption that demand for the Company's product will be sustained or increase in accordance with management's projections, that the Company's internal research and analysis is indicative of broader market trends and the Company's anticipated future demand for its products, that changes in consumer preferences in the plant-based food industry will continue in accordance with the Company's expectations, that the Company's current business objectives can be achieved and that its other corporate activities will proceed as expected, and that general business and economic conditions will not change in a materially adverse manner. Although the management of the Company believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any forward-looking statement herein will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. Risks and uncertainties applicable to the Company, as well as trends identified by the Company affecting its industry can be found in the Company's annual information form dated January 6, 2022 and the Company's continuous disclosure record available on SEDAR at . Such cautionary statements qualify all forward-looking statements made in this news release. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

SOURCE: The Planting Hope Company Inc.