Standing Up Against Racism:
Sustaining Momentum for Equity

May 2022 Update

Two years have passed since George Floyd’s murder. Our world has changed in unimaginable ways during this time, but one constant is the need for acknowledging and then removing inequities in our society, so everyone has the opportunity to thrive. At Giant Eagle, we recognize that we can’t truly thrive until everyone in our communities thrives. This is the bedrock concept that sustains our commitment to Stand Up Against Racism. To continue to honor Mr. Floyd, Daunte Wright, Breonna Taylor, and so many others, we remain completely dedicated to openly sharing what we are accomplishing against the important commitments we made in 2020. We will do this by transparently sharing our data to demonstrate our progress.

Commitment 1: Reach or Surpass 14% Black Representation at Leadership Levels by 2025.

While we adhere to our commitment to always hire or promote the most qualified person for a role, we also must be deliberate in recognizing that Black people have been historically underrepresented in Giant Eagle leadership and work to close the gap. We selected 14% as the goal because it reflects U.S. Census national representation when including people who identify as two or more races, one of which is Black.

We started our most recent fiscal year on July 1, 2021 with 3.93% Black representation in leadership and are currently at 5.12%, an increase of more than 25%. In total, the number of Black leaders in our company during this time increased by 16 Team Members. Our goal for the upcoming fiscal year is to reach 7% Black leadership representation.

Our efforts to identify and attract new Black leadership talent have taken our recruiting teams to collegiate career fairs as far as Alabama, Georgia and Texas, while simultaneously evolving our hiring efforts closer to home throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. These higher education-focused efforts are complemented by the development of talent at the high school level through long-standing local partnerships.

Among our development activities is the launch of the Giant Eagle Black Leadership Development Program. The company welcomed the program’s inaugural class this past February, providing Black Team Members with opportunities to invest in themselves and their careers. We also paired approximately 50 high-potential Black leaders with senior leader mentors.

Additionally, we are implementing a new concept called the Inclusion Advocate. This role participates in group talent discussions and is entirely dedicated to listening for and raising awareness to when unconscious bias may be present in the way we evaluate talent. Over the next 12 months, we will build on our momentum by focusing on increasing authentic belonging among our current and future Black leaders.

Commitment 2: Place a Black business leader on our Board of Directors.

We successfully recruited and placed an accomplished Black business leader on the Company’s Board of Directors in early 2021 and since then have worked to ensure our Board is a welcoming place for her and all Board members. The Board and our company continue to benefit greatly from her professional expertise and unique perspective.

Commitment 3: Complete a compensation equity study by race and to make necessary adjustments, if they exist. 

Completed in 2021, our Compensation Equity Study showed there were no systemic differences in pay related to race throughout our company. We will continue to monitor our compensation rates and related processes to ensure ongoing equity and are committed to continuous learning about the direct and indirect ways inequities can unintentionally emerge so that we can best prevent them from happening.

Commitment 4: Help solve food access challenges in communities with significant Black representation.

In 2021, we launched Giant Eagle’s Community Pickup Point program, delivering pre-ordered groceries to community centers in neighborhoods challenged by convenient access to nutritious foods. In our first year, we launched Community Pickup Points in three distinct Pittsburgh neighborhoods: Sheraden, Homewood, and Larimer. As we move forward, we are working closely with our neighborhood partner organizations to find ways to increase availability and impact of the service.

In January of this year, we launched the Giant Eagle Mobile Market. In only a few short months, the Mobile Market has extended access to more than 400 fresh grocery staples, including, produce, dairy, meat, dry goods, and a selection of frozen items to Pittsburgh communities including Braddock, North Braddock, Rankin, Sheraden, Larimer, and two distinct areas within Homewood. We have received positive feedback from these communities and remain committed to evolving the Mobile Market so that we can increase our impact for these initial communities while also introducing the Mobile Market to new neighborhoods.

Since 2019, Giant Eagle has provided access to areas within Pittsburgh’s Hill District community by waving the delivery fee of grocery orders placed online, today resulting in hundreds of grocery orders hitting residents’ doorsteps each month. This spring, the company expanded the free delivery service to the Youngstown and Maple Heights communities in northeast Ohio, bringing the same fresh, high-quality foods and value found in our store to families’ doorsteps at no incremental cost.

Overall, this growing portfolio of solutions have combined have resulted in us creating new food access solutions across nine communities throughout western Pennsylvania and Ohio over the last 24 months.

Commitment 5: Partner with 124 new Black-owned businesses by 2025.

We originally stated this commitment as a goal to double the number of new Black-owned businesses we work with each year for five years, but for consistency in measurement purposes, we reframed this goal around a specific target number that represents the total number of new businesses we set out to identify under the original goal construct.

The revised goal - to add 124 new Black-owned business partners by 2025 - is achievable. In the past year we have introduced nine new businesses including ZEN Balms, Partake Cookies, and Me & the Bees Lemonade and aim to add at least 16 additional Black-owned businesses over the next 12 months.

Commitment 6: Continued education and dialogue. 

Our work must be grounded in a recognition that we must educate ourselves and participate in open and honest dialogue about racism and how to fight it. Over the past twelve months, Giant Eagle’s commitment to continued learning has taken many forms. We launched an e-learning course focused on helping Team Members understand how to define inclusion, equity, and diversity and why it is important. In the summer, we will launch a five-part e-learning series that dives into why this should be important to us as individuals, how to have difficult conversations, and the often-unseen influences of unconscious bias and microaggressions.

We also launched our first Inclusion Survey to help understand the sense of belonging in the company. The survey also included an opportunity for participants to share thoughts about where barriers may exist that prevent them from thriving in the company. Comprehensive action plans are being developed now and will be developed and implemented collaboratively between senior leadership and Team Members throughout the next 12 months.

Additional opportunities for learning included a panel discussion held in April featuring numerous community food access leaders and focused on understanding the intersection of food insecurity and race. This year also saw Giant Eagle launch our Inclusion, Equity & Diversity (IE&D) Regional Councils, aimed at leading grassroots efforts to engage more Team Members through our Business Resource Groups, encouraging local IE&D conversations and education opportunities, and creating store-level accountability for Giant Eagle’s IE&D goals.

Encouraging Progress and Steadfast Commitment

We have learned a great deal from the work put forward over the last 24 months and recognize how much more we need to learn. While we are proud of what we have accomplished so far, we know the hard work is ahead and for years to come. We must always be seeking to do more. We must simultaneously sustain the momentum created in support of Black Team Members and neighbors while recognizing that those from other backgrounds face their own inequities and need our support.

Thank you to every Team Member, Guest and community member helping Giant Eagle accomplish our commitments and for the independent work you do to make our communities more inclusive, equitable and diverse. We look forward to providing additional updates on our progress in the coming months.