2023 Natural Grocers Environmental, Social, and Governance Report

Community Events and Sponsorships Community is one of our Five Founding Principles. We believe it is vital to give back to our communities by supporting the efforts of non-profit groups that promote the health and wellbeing of our communities and the environment.

LOCAL FOOD BANKS In the early days of our first store, co-founder Margaret Isely kept a community food cabinet from which she would share the ingredients for a nutritious meal with families in need. Since then, food bank fundraisers have become a lynchpin of company-wide donations and fundraisers throughout the year. A list of our food bank partners is available at: Food bank donations FREE CUSTOMER NUTRITION EDUCATION We are the only national grocery chain to support a full-time Nutritional Health Coach (NHC) position in all stores, whose primary responsibility is providing free nutrition education to our customers, Crew, and the surrounding community. (For more details, see the Nutrition Education section of this report.) SUPPORTING OUR CREW Our Heroes in Aprons Fund provides short-term financial assistance to qualifying Crew members or their immediate family members who experience unanticipated hardships. Funds are raised through company donations and customer fundraisers. COMMUNITY PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: BEYOND PESTICIDES Since 2019, Natural Grocers ® has teamed up with Beyond Pesticides, a 501(c)3 nonprofit advocacy and grassroots organization that aims to protect public health and the environment by leading the transition to a world free of toxic pesticides. Part of that partnership includes fundraising campaigns for Earth Day in April and Organic Month in September. The resulting Ladybug Love Your Neighborhoods campaign raises awareness and directly contributes funds to reduce the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, and to promote organic practices in public spaces, making them safer for the community and pollinators.

COMMUNITY PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: JACK AND JILL OF AMERICA COLLEGE GRADUATION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (GAP) FUND

Since 2019, Natural Grocers has partnered with Jack and Jill of America for a groundbreaking initiative born of our shared values and commitment to the communities and families we both serve through education and empowerment. The annual fundraising initiative provides funding that directly supports students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HCBU) who are in good academic standing and on track to graduate but are faced with the ever-growing problem of tuition debt.

In fiscal year 2023 we supported our communities with more than:

$5 MILLION of company in-kind food and product donations

$6 MILLION of free nutrition education services

$0.8 MILLION in monetary donations for company donations and customer fundraisers

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NATURAL GROCERS ® | ESG REPORT