INCLUSIVE BACKING FOR VETERANS “ I am a retired U.S. Army and Pennsylvania Army National Guardsman and together, my wife and I created our business as a mom-and-pop hoagie shop. Most sandwich shops around here are franchises, so we wanted to bring something special to our local community. Community to us is everything—we have customers who travel hours to our shop because they heard about us from a friend and customers can buy a meal and place it on our “pay it forward” board which will go toward the less fortunate. But between the pandemic and the current challenges met by inflation, this Inclusive Backing grant has been incredibly encouraging. A portion of the grant will be used to build a wheelchair ramp so we can offer a more inclusive environment and additional funds will be used toward insulation and re-siding to make the shop more energy efficient because with costs continuing to rise, we need to save money where we can.” – ROBERT CAPONE, CO-OWNER OF CAPONE’S HOAGIES IN NEWKIRK, OKLAHOMA Inclusive Backing for AAPI-Owned Small Businesses Our Inclusive Backing grant program, in partnership with Main Street America, is part of our Backing Small initiative to support small business owners. In February 2022, we announced the first 75 grant recipients who identified as members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community or persons with disabilities. Four of these small business owners who are members of the AAPI community shared what these grants mean for their businesses. “ This is a grant that will help us keep our doors open while we continue to serve our community,” says James Dong, Owner of Last Minute Gear in San Francisco. Arianne Wing talked about being able to carry on the heritage of the L.T. Sue & Co. Tea Room & Emporium, her family’s multigenerational restaurant in Hanford, California’s China Alley Historic District. For Irene Tsukada Simonian—Owner of the Bunkado gift shop in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo, the grant “validates all of the hard work that I put into this as well as my parents and my aunt and uncle who started this business.” “ It’s encouragement. It’s recognition,” says Ming-Yu Wu, Owner of the Wicked BAO restaurant in Fernandina Beach, Florida. “It means that someone out there is supporting the AAPI community.” INTRODUCTION PROMOTING DE&I ADVANCING CLIMATE SOLUTIONS BUILDING FINANCIAL CONFIDENCE OUR ESG GOVERNANCE & OPERATING RESPONSIBLY SUPPORTING DATA OUR COMMITMENT TO ESG 73