Hope and Sesame(R) Barista Blend Sesamemilk Wins Best Product at Coffee Fest 2022, Adding to Sesamemilk's Strong Momentum as the Next Big Trend in Plant Milks

• Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk Awarded Best Product at Coffee Fest Chicago 2022
• Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk Featured and Sampled on Good Morning America, Reaching Over Three Million Viewers Across the United States
• Planting Hope Partners With Metropolis Coffee, Chicago's Largest Independent Coffee Roaster
• Shirazi Distributing To Add Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk, Expanding Reach to an Additional 200 Independent Cafés in the Northeastern United States

CHICAGO, IL and VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 28, 2022 / The Planting Hope Company Inc. (TSXV:MYLK)(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® Barista Blend Sesamemilk was awarded Best Product at Coffee Fest Chicago 2022 ("Coffee Fest"). Coffee Fest was held on June 24-25, 2022. Planting Hope exhibited Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk along with Mozaics™ Real Veggie Chips and Veggicopia® Veggie Snacks in booth #916.

Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk Featured in Leading U.S. National News Outlets

Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk was selected by celebrity chef George Duran on Good Morning America on June 25, 2022, as a top trend find from the Summer Fancy Food Show held in New York City from June 12-14, 2022. In the segment, Chef Duran showcased Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk and highlighted its sustainability and ability to froth beautifully for cappuccinos. Good Morning America has more than three million viewers across the U.S. Watch the full segment by clicking here.

Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk was also highlighted on June 16, 2022, in a Washington Post article titled "6 Food Trends to Watch For in 2022 and Beyond", which discussed what the next ‘It' alternative milk could be. Read the full article by clicking here.

"We are thrilled that the specialty coffee industry is embracing sesamemilk as the next big plant milk trend," said Julia Stamberger, CEO and Co-founder of Planting Hope. "Validation by coffee experts, baristas, and chefs, and widespread positive media coverage of Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk as a prominent new trend on Good Morning America and in the Washington Post, are stamps of approval that add to the momentum fueling café and consumer demand for our sesamemilk."

Planting Hope Expands Distribution Into Independent Cafés

Planting Hope partnered with Metropolis Coffee ("Metropolis"), Chicago's largest independent coffee roaster, to host a Coffee Fest kick-off party at their headquarters on June 23, 2022.

Metropolis is adding Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk to the menu at all its cafés, rolling out in summer 2022.

Shirazi Distributing has also signed with Planting Hope to distribute Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk to cafés and restaurants in the Boston and Greater New England Area. Shirazi Distributing has more than 200 foodservice customers reached by their own trucks and a small network of sub-distributors. The Shirazi family has been supplying greater Boston restaurants, small markets, and institutions with the highest quality eggs, milk, dairy, and other restaurant foods since 1989.

The following independent coffee shops announced they have added Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk to their menus:

• Aiyaohno Café (Vancouver, BC)
• Fusion Brew (Normal, IL)
• The SisterYard (New York City, NY)
• Storied Coffee (Scotia, NY)
• The Ridge Tea and Spice Shop (New Paltz, NY)
• Uncharted Tea (Portland, ME)
• S & S Corner Shop (East Hampton, NY)
• Henry's Local (Brooklyn, NY)

Planting Hope Continues to Showcase Hope and Sesame® Across North America

The Summer of Love Hope and Sesame® Barista Tour ("Tour") is kicking off Tuesday, June 28, 2022, with an event at Little City Café at Yeti corporate headquarters in Austin, Texas. The Tour will be continuing to Austin's Revival Coffee on Thursday, June 30, 2022. On Tour dates, Hope and Sesame® ‘takes over' each café, offering all hot and cold drinks featuring sesamemilk free to café customers.

Planting Hope is also sponsoring a three-member barista team at the Crush the Rush barista competition in Vancouver, British Columbia, on July 9, 2022. The team will be using Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk as they battle against other top contenders in a series of barista ‘bar flow' challenges.

Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk

• Awarded ‘Best Product' at Coffee Fest Chicago 2022
• 4g complete plant-based protein per serving (provides all nine essential amino acids)
• Excellent source of Calcium and a good source of Vitamin D and Phosphorus
• Vegan / Soy-Free / Dairy-Free / Gluten-Free Certified / Kosher Certified
• Froths, foams, and steams like a dream, great for latte art!
• Delicious in any hot or iced drink

Sesame - One of the Most Sustainable Crops on the Planet

• Requires little water to cultivate, thrives in drought conditions
• Bee-friendly, self-pollinating
• An excellent cover crop, contributing positively to sustainable agriculture
• Sesamemilk upcycles the protein-rich pulp remaining after sesame seeds are pressed for oil (traditionally considered a by-product used primarily for animal feed)

About Hope and Sesame®

Hope and Sesame® has cracked the code on unlocking the dense nutrition in tiny sesame seeds, creating an important new trend in plant milk: sesamemilk, both ultra-nutritious and highly planet-friendly. Sesame is sustainable, requiring very little water to cultivate, is naturally drought- and pest-resistant, and can self-pollinate. Sesamemilk is nutritionally comparable to dairy milk, delivering 8g of complete protein per serving (including all nine essential amino acids) - that's 8x the protein in most nut milks and 3x the protein in most oat milks! Specifically developed for and tested by top baristas, Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk froths, steams, and foams like a dream, great for latte art, and delivers 4g of complete protein per 8oz serving. Sesamemilk is an excellent source of Vitamin D and Calcium and is upcycled from the byproduct of sesame oil extraction. Hope and Sesame® Sesamilk™ creamers are free from saturated fat and contain only 40 calories per serving. 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® Barista Blend Sesamemilk was awarded Best Product at Coffee Fest Chicago 2022 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 award-winning Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk and Barista Blend Sesamemilk, Sesamilk™ creamers, RightRice® Veggie Rice, Mozaics™ Real Veggie Chips, and Veggicopia® Veggie Snacks. 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 visit: www.plantinghopecompany.com.

Contacts:

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

Media Contact:
Jessup PR
Alex Jessup
(323) 529-3541
alex.jessup@jessuppr.com

Investor Relations Contact:
Caroline Sawamoto
Investor Relations
(773) 492-2243
ir@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 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.