KROGER HELPS OPRAH'S ANGEL NETWORK FEED HURRICANE KATRINA VICTIMS IN MEMPHIS

CINCINNATI, OH, September 9, 2005 – A quick, coordinated response by The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) and other corporate partners this week turned a $1 million cash donation from Oprah’s Angel Network into thousands of pounds of food to feed hungry Americans displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

A portion of the $1 million contribution to America’s Second Harvest, the nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization, was used to purchase food to support relief efforts in the Memphis area, where an estimated 25,000 evacuees have taken refuge. Approximately 10,000 are living in emergency shelters there.

Within 24 hours of hearing of the financial contribution, Kroger had delivered five truckloads of food and grocery products – valued at $200,000 – to assist The Memphis Food Bank. Working from a list of critically needed items supplied by the food bank, Kroger distribution center associates in Memphis sorted and loaded the supplies onto four trucks from Kroger and one from FedEx. The five vehicles formed a convoy to transport the supplies to the food bank last Sunday afternoon. A contingent of 30 Kroger volunteers was on hand to help unload the trucks and stock the food bank’s shelves.

“Kroger’s Delta division in Memphis has always been with the Food Bank at good times and bad,” said Susan Sanford, executive director of the Food Bank. “At this horrible time for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the Kroger distribution center worked overtime to pull together emergency supplies that we needed over the holiday weekend and, in record time, supplied five truckloads of food with almost no notice.”

She said the Food Bank’s service area consists of 32 Mid-South counties, so the food is being supplied not only to Memphis and Shelby counties in Tennessee, but also as far south as Tupelo, Mississippi. She said the first food Kroger supplied last weekend went to emergency shelters in Tunica County, Mississippi.

“Kroger associates have a history of helping the food bank feed families in Memphis,” said Bill Platten, vice president of operations for Kroger’s Delta division. “Helping with the Oprah Angel Network project was a natural extension of that longtime support.”

Oprah’s Angel Network donation funded similar contributions to the North Texas Food Bank in Dallas, the Houston Food Bank, the Bay Area Food Bank in Theodore, Alabama, and the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank.

Kroger expects to help raise more than $5 million for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, Kroger is one of the nation’s largest retail grocery chains. At the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2004, the Company operated (either directly or through its subsidiaries) 2,536 supermarkets and multi-department stores in 32 states under two dozen banners including Kroger, Ralphs, Fred Meyer, Food 4 Less, King Soopers, Smith’s, Fry’s, Fry’s Marketplace, Dillons, QFC and City Market. Kroger also operated (either directly or through subsidiaries, franchise agreements, or operating agreements) 794 convenience stores, 439 fine jewelry stores, and 42 food processing plants. For more information about Kroger, please visit our web site at www.kroger.com.

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