“UNFI recognizes and celebrates all of our employees who live and work with a disability, as well as those who serve as caregivers,” said Guillaume Bagal, vice president of diversity, equity, inclusion and benefits at UNFI, the only North American grocery wholesaler to be ranked. “We are incredibly proud to be recognized as a top scorer on the Disability Equality Index and a Best Place to Work for the third year in a row. We are committed to continuing to be an employer that promotes accessibility and opportunities for growth, combats bias, advances disability education and awareness, and ensures the physical and mental safety of all our employees.”
Led by its affiliated Belonging and Innovation group, DREAM (Disability Resources, Equity, Allyship, Mentoring), UNFI has implemented company-wide mental health awareness trainings and resources over the past year, hosted various workshops on parenting children with special needs, and held the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) Carry Forward 5K run and fundraiser. Additional efforts this year include creating a series of guides, short videos, and best practices to improve the accessibility of the most commonly used digital tools within UNFI, as well as launching virtual body doubling sessions to increase motivation and productivity by working with accountability partners.
Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, UNFI delivers a wide variety of products to more than 30,000 customer locations across North America, including natural foods retailers, independent retailers, traditional supermarket chains, e-commerce retailers and foodservice customers. The company is America’s largest publicly traded grocer and is ranked 22nd on Progressive Grocer’s 2024 “PG 100” list of the top food and consumable retailers in North America.
Privately held Meijer operates more than 500 supercenters, Meijer Grocery, Neighborhood Markets and Express stores in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin. Headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the company is ranked 23rd on the PG 100 and has also been named the magazine’s “Retailer of the Century” and “10 Most Sustainable Grocers for 2024.”
Walmart, Amazon, The Kroger Co., CVS Health, Walgreens, Target Co., Albertsons and Giant Eagle rank 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th and 42nd, respectively, on the PG100.
More than 400 companies collaborate with Disability:IN on long-term business and societal impact through DEI, a disability inclusion benchmarking and reporting tool, conferences and programs, expert advice and engagement, and public policy leadership. Run since 2015 by Disability:IN in collaboration with the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the largest disability rights organization in the United States, DEI assigns each company a score on a scale of 0 to 100, with companies that score 80 or above recognized as Best Workplaces for Disability Inclusion.