diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 884b9f6e9fd..d458db93ff7 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ v 8.9.0 (unreleased)
   - Horizontally scrolling navigation on project, group, and profile settings pages
   - Hide global side navigation by default
   - Remove tanuki logo from side navigation; center on top nav
+  - Include user relationships when retrieving award_emoji
 
 v 8.8.5 (unreleased)
   - Ensure branch cleanup regardless of whether the GitHub import process succeeds
diff --git a/app/models/concerns/awardable.rb b/app/models/concerns/awardable.rb
index aa4b4201250..539c7c31e30 100644
--- a/app/models/concerns/awardable.rb
+++ b/app/models/concerns/awardable.rb
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ module Awardable
     has_many :award_emoji, as: :awardable, dependent: :destroy
 
     if self < Participable
-      participant :award_emoji
+      participant :award_emoji_with_associations
     end
   end
 
@@ -34,8 +34,12 @@ module Awardable
     end
   end
 
+  def award_emoji_with_associations
+    award_emoji.includes(:user)
+  end
+
   def grouped_awards(with_thumbs: true)
-    awards = award_emoji.group_by(&:name)
+    awards = award_emoji_with_associations.group_by(&:name)
 
     if with_thumbs
       awards[AwardEmoji::UPVOTE_NAME]   ||= []