The Fifty/50 Charity

SUMMARY OF CHARITABLE EFFORTS As many of us are working together towards a more equitable future, we recognize that companies must do so much more than just say something, and we must continue our allyship and charitable efforts when #BlackLivesMatter is no longer a trending hashtag.

We have gotten feedback that companies like ours need to be transparent with their donations and activism.

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These are arranged in no particular order.

In November of 2019, The Fifty/50 Group pulled all Founders Brewing products due to racist practices within their company that were brought to light. In order to show solidarity, Roots Handmade Pizza raised $3,000 for Polished Pebbles with the remainder of our Founders inventory. Polished Pebbles is a mentorship organization that works with Black and Latina girls throughout Chicago and Northwest Indiana that teaches vital life skills of effective communication.

In January of 2020, we launched a monthly charity effort for all West Town Bakery locations that donates proceeds of special cookies and cupcakes to organizations in need. Those organizations, so far, include Open Heart Magic, Polished Pebbles, The Foundation for WomenĘźs Cancer, Lost Boyz, and The Travis Manion Foundation.

In June 2015, then presidential candidate Donald Trump made statements calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists.

At the time, 5 Rabbit Cervecería, a Chicagoland Latin-inspired and Latin-owned craft brewery, had been producing a house beer exclusively for the Trump Tower in Chicago.

The following morning after Trump’s racist comments, 5 Rabbit informed their contact at Trump Tower that they could no longer do business with them.

This left 5 Rabbit with dozens of kegs of beer they had absolutely no use for, and dumping it would mean taking a massive financial hit. 5 Rabbit called restaurant owners in the area they had relationships with to see if they might want to buy a keg to help the brewery and combat Mknfi l kZ\blf' The Roots Handmade Pizza West Town location quickly ink\aZl^] Z d^` h_ . KZ[[bm l _k^laer k^&gZf^] <abg`Z Tu Pelo” beer, and Roots then donated $500 to 5 Rabbit’s charity of choice -- The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago.

In 2019, The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group donated over $10,000 to the Wood Family Foundation. The foundation helps provide resources, funding, and promotes positive change to Chicago Public Schools in the underserved Chicago communities of Austin, Englewood, Humboldt Park, and North Lawndale. Co-Founder Scott Weiner & his wife Angela served on the advisory board and helped organize the fall social event.

In 2019, we raised $6,000 for No Stigmas through a charity dinner that we put on featuring Michelin Star chefs at Steadfast restaurant. No Stigmas is a Chicago mental health charity that specializes in helping hospitality workers in need.

In 2019, we partnered with former Alderman Ameya Pawar and Union consultant Hannah Jubeh to create a cannabis project where we became minority owners while giving the majority ownership to our social equity partners.

One of our social equity partners is the Academy Group which provides hundreds of Chicago youth the opportunity for disadvantaged youth to receive academic support, mentoring, and work experience from 4th grade up until they start their career.

In addition, we have committed to providing 3% of our ownership to disadvantaged Chicago youth while committing to hiring management from the Academy Group. We were also the first cannabis applicant to commit to hiring organized labor to staff our dispensary.

In January of 2019, our seafood restaurant Portsmith raised +%1-1 Zm hnk EZ ;^lmbZ ^o^gm for Children First Fund and Chicago Public Schools.

Our first event went so well that we hosted a second one a month later, raising $1,693.

La Bestia, Spanish for â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Beast,â&#x20AC;? is nicknamed for the route many immigrants take through Mexico, from Central America, to the U.S. One of the beneficiaries was the Mariachi Ensemble at Benito Juarez Academy in Pilsen.

Since 2018, we have raised money for Shedd Aquarium through multiple campaigns at Portsmith.

We wanted to combine our love of the culinary \hffbmm^^ pbma Ihkmlfbma l \hffbmf^gm mh a^eibg` save the ocean. Portsmith had already been a part h_ La^]] l LnlmZbgZ[e^ L^Z_hh] Ikh`kZf% lh p^ thought that it might be a great place to get more involved with.

We reached out to some of our esteemed peers at other Chicago restaurants, and asked them to create a special oyster for each week of our chef series oyster series. We produced our Oyster Series program three times. These were 8-week menus, with 100% of the proceeds going directly to Shedd. We ended each series with a benefit party, with 100% of those ticket sales being directly donated as well. We also have to thank Ketel One for being a part of this initiative!

In February of 2017, we partnered with “Team Home Away From Home” to raise money for Refugee One. We raised around $4,000 from a portion of sales from our Roots locations, as well as participation from some of our brewery buddies.

This money went directly to helping support a Syrian refugee family get settled into their new life in Chicago.

In May 2020, we donated $650 to My Block, My Hood, My City for their Small Business Relief Fund. In June 2020, we donated $10,300 to My Block, My Hood, My City which represented 20 percent of proceeds from all our sales on Juneteenth from all our restaurants. We finalizing plans to facilitate BIPOC career-development programs in partnership with My Block, My Hood, My City as well.

We donate and fundraise for all of the local schools around our restaurants and have pledged to do the same in underserved areas of the city that we donʼt have restaurants in as well.

In 2020, the COVID crisis hit. We knew that we had to do something to help. With the fiscal assistance from an anonymous tech CEO donor, we were able to kick off The Fifty/50 Group Charities Food Drive. We began operations out of The Fifty/50, and then a week later out of West Town Bakery in partnership with The LEE Initiative and MakersĘź Mark. We also catered meals for many frontline workers, as well as other groups helping the community. We worked with so many brilliant initiatives and charities to bring food to Chicagoans in need. All in all, we will have given out 80,000 meals between March 25th and when our stationary food drive ends on June 14th.

SPECIAL THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING ORGANIZATIONS FOR CONTRIBUTING TO OUR FOOD DRIVE EFFORTS:

Frontline Foods | World Central Kitchen | Lakeview Pantry Common Pantry | Chicago Commons | A Safe Haven Off Their Plate | Goose Island

OTHER FOUNDATIONS, SCHOOLS, AND NON-PROFITS THAT WE HAVE EITHER RAISED MONEY FOR, DONATED DIRECTLY TO, OR CONTRIBUTED TO A CHARITY AUCTION FOR: American Cancer Society

Mitchell Elementary School

Best Buddies

Mothers Against Senseless Killings

Black Lives Matter

National Hellenic Museum

Brave Space Alliance

Northeastern Illinois University

Canine Therapy Corps

Northwestern Brain Tumor Institute

Chappell Elementary

One Tail at A Time

Chicago Academy for The Arts

PAWS Chicago

Connections for Abused Women & Their Children (CAWC)

Pancreatic Cancer Foundation

Cradles to Crayons Darkest Before Dawn Epicurean Charitable Foundation Feldman Foundation Friends Against AIDS Garfield Park Conservatory Helping Fight Against Alzheimers Hope For The Day Howard Brown James Beard Eats Week Scholarship Fund Jones College Prep Loyola Athletics Meals on Wheels McPherson School

PlayMakers Laboratory Theatre Project Hope (To Rebuild Puerto Rico) St. Helen's School St. Mathias Team Sean / Have Dreams Chicago The Anti-Cruelty Society The Friendship Center The Little Giraffe Foundation The National Museum of Mexican Art The Trotter Project Trio Animal Foundation Unicef Waters Elementary