Mustard Seed Street Church is a 3-star, financially transparent charity with a below-average C+ results reporting grade. It has a reasonably sized reserve of cash and investments that can finance 14 months of program operations and 10% overhead spending. For every dollar donated, 90 cents are available to go to the cause.

Founded in 1975, Mustard Seed Street Church (Mustard Seed) is a Christian charity operating in Greater Victoria, British Columbia. Mustard Seed distributes food directly to people at its food bank and indirectly through its 75-member agency network. The charity also partners with schools and provides students essential school supplies. Its outreach team also travels around Victoria and gives out snacks, coffee, and spiritual services to the city’s homeless population.

Mustard Seed runs two program groups: food and other programs. It spent $3.2m cash on its programs and distributed $284k worth of food in the March 2024 fiscal year (F2024). Mustard Seed did not provide any further breakdown of its program spending at the time of this profile update.

Food programs were the majority of Mustard Seed’s program spending and includes operations at both its own food bank and distribution centre. In F2024, the charity distributed over 650,000 lb of food worth $2.29 billion to individuals across Victoria. At its distribution centre, it collected and distributed 2,531,397 lb of food (77% perishable and 23% non-perishable) to 75 agency partners. These partners reportedly include smaller food banks, churches, and schools.

Other programs include Mustard Seed’s outreach services, school supplies, and Christmas hamper subprograms. In F2024, the charity’s outreach teams distributed over 74,000 lb of snacks and 62,000 drinks to those living on the streets. Mustard Seed also provided 600 children shoes, grocery gift cards, and school supplies. In December 2024, Mustard Seed distributed Christmas hampers containing toys and other gifts to 1,842 people.

Mustard Seed Street Church’s audited financial statements follow line-item costing, meaning it does not separate out its expenses into program, administrative, and fundraising activities. This is not a best practice.

In F2024, Mustard Seed received $3.9m of cash donations (78% of total revenue), $284k worth of donated food (6% of revenue), and $282k of government funding (6% of revenue).

Administrative costs are 5% of total revenue and fundraising costs are 5% of cash donations. Its 10% total overhead spending means that for every dollar donated, 90 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range.

Mustard Seed spent $3.2m cash on program operations (12% increase from $2.9m in F2023) and distributed $284k worth of food (25% increase from $228k in F2023). 

At the end of F2024, Mustard Seed had $3.7m net reserve funds (cash and investments). Its reserves can cover 116% or nearly one year and two months of its annual program spending.

Profile updated by Julian Dranitsaris on July 7, 2025. Comments & corrections may be forthcoming.

Questions? Contact jdranitsaris@charityintelligence.ca

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