• Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk has been recognized with the ‘Best Novel Creamer' Award from Good Housekeeping in their 2022 Best Coffee Awards
• Forbes highlighted Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk as an up-and-coming trend in the article: "Why the Tiny-But-Mighty Sesame Seed is the New Superfood"
• Leading Northeast retailer Hannaford Supermarkets has added Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk to 162 stores, adding 324 Total Distribution Points

CHICAGO, IL and VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 22, 2022 / The Planting Hope Company Inc. (TSXV:MYLK)(OTCQB:MYLKF)(FRA:J94) ("Planting Hope" or the "Company"), a plant-based food and beverage company focused on producing the world's most nutritious and planet-friendly products, is pleased to announce that Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk is continuing to gain momentum and recognition from retailers, the media, and major awards.

Leading grocery retailer Hannaford Supermarkets, with 185 stores across the northeastern United States, has added both Unsweetened Original and Unsweetened Vanilla Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk to the shelf-stable plant milk assortments in the Grocery section of 162 of their stores. This distribution expansion adds 324 Total Distribution Points for the Hope and Sesame® brand across Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and New York.

Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk Receives Good Housekeeping Award for Best Novel Creamer

Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk was recognized with the award for ‘Best Novel Creamer' in the 2022 Good Housekeeping Best Coffee Awards. The Good Housekeeping editors spent months testing product submissions and reviewing products on attributes like innovation, performance, and ease of use, collaborating with Coffee Project New York to assist with evaluation.

Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk has received the award for Best Novel Creamer in the 2022 Good Housekeeping Best Coffee Awards!

Continued Major Media Coverage Spotlights Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk and Sesame as an Ingredient as Up-and-Coming Trends

Forbes Magazine highlighted sesame as a trend in "Why the Tiny But Mighty Sesame Seed Is The New Superfood". Per the article: "Sesame milk is better for the planet, demanding 95% less water than almond milk. It also offers 8 grams of complete protein per serving. On top of that, it foams like milk, making it a favorite of baristas," and additionally, "Hope and Sesame won the Best Plant-based Milk awards at the 2022 World Plant-based Expo for its Barista Blend. The brand offers the first commercially-available sesame milk globally. The parent company spent five years developing it."

Forbes coverage continues the media interest in sesame, which has been building momentum in recent months with coverage in Good Morning America, The Washington Post, Thrillist, Consumer Reports, and more. For media coverage and articles, please visit our website's press page by clicking here.

"Sesame is the superfood that everyone knows, but until now it has been relatively untapped in terms of its potential as a great source of human nutrition, with the most nutritious parts of the sesame seed either being discarded or used for animal feed after sesame oil extraction," said Julia Stamberger, CEO and Co-founder of Planting Hope. "A highly sustainable crop that has been cultivated for more than 4,000 years, sesame is getting new opportunities for consumption through products like our Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk, which delivers the full nutrition of the sesame seed in an easy-to-consume beverage that's a delicious alternative to dairy milk and low-nutrition, resource-intensive plant milks like almond milk. Receiving accolades like the Good Housekeeping Award, given their rigorous testing standards and discerning criteria, is truly an honor and further indication that soon sesame milk will become a mainstream product in households, supermarkets, and cafes throughout the United States, just as oat milk did. All signs point towards sesame milk realizing its potential to be the new ‘it' category in plant-based milk."

About Hope and Sesame®
Hope and Sesame® has cracked the code on unlocking the dense nutrition in tiny sesame seeds to create a plant milk that's good-for-you, planet-friendly, and delicious! Sesame is highly sustainable, thriving in arid climates with very little water, is naturally drought- and pest-resistant, and can self-pollinate. Nutritionally comparable to dairy milk, Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk delivers 8g of complete protein per serving (including all nine essential amino acids) - that's 8x the protein in most almond and nut milks and 3x the protein in most oat milks! Developed for and approved by top baristas, Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk froths, steams, and foams like a dream, is great for latte art, and delivers 4g of complete protein per 8oz serving. Sesamemilk is an excellent source of both Vitamin D and Calcium and its core ingredient is the ultra-nutritious pulp upcycled from sesame oil extraction. All Hope and Sesame® products are vegan, Certified Gluten-Free and Certified Kosher, free from soy and dairy, Non-GMO Project Verified, and Certified by the Plant Based Foods Association.

Hope and Sesame®'s products have received myriad industry and consumer awards, and they keep coming: Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk was awarded Best Novel Creamer by Good Housekeeping in their 2022 Best Coffee Awards, won Best Product at Coffee Fest Chicago 2022, received the international GAMA 2022 Innovation Award for Best Hospitality Product, and was a finalist for Best Product of the Year at the 2022 Specialty Coffee Awards; Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk was awarded Best Milk Alternative and Best Plant-Based Sustainability in FoodBev's 2021 World Plant-Based Food Awards; signature Chocolate Hazelnut Sesamemilk flavor received the 2020 Sofi Award for Best New Product, Plant-Based Milk from the Specialty Food Association.

About The Planting Hope Company Inc.
Planting Hope develops, launches, and scales uniquely innovative plant-based and planet-friendly food and beverage brands. Planting Hope's award-winning and cutting-edge products fill key unmet needs in the skyrocketing plant-based food and beverage space. The Planting Hope brand family includes Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk, Barista Blend Sesamemilk, and Sesamilk™ creamers, RightRice® Veggie Rice, Mozaics™ Real Veggie Chips, and Veggicopia® Veggie Snacks. Products from Planting Hope brands are available in more than 9,000 doors and more than 50,000 total distribution points at grocery retailers throughout North America, and are carried by key distributors to grocery, foodservice, and cafés. Founded by experienced food industry entrepreneurs, Planting Hope is a women-managed and woman-led company focused on nutrition, sustainability, and diversity.

For more information about Planting Hope and where to find its award-winning plant-based brands please visit plantinghopecompany.com, sign up for Planting Hope news emails HERE and follow on LinkedIn. An informational webinar on The Planting Hope Company from CEO and Co-founder Julia Stamberger is available HERE. To follow the brands on Instagram and Facebook, please visit: @hopeandsesameco, @veggicopia, @rightrice, @mozaicschips.

Contacts

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

Investor Relations Contacts:
Glen Akselrod, Bristol Capital
(905) 326-1888 ext. 1
glen@bristolir.com

Caroline Sawamoto, IR Labs
(773) 492-2243
ir@plantinghopecompany.com

Media Contact:
Alex Jessup, Jessup PR
(323) 529-3541
alex.jessup@jessuppr.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 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 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, and the Company's business prospects, future trends, plans and strategies. 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 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 information, 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 www.sedar.com. 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.