Ottawa Food Bank is a 5-star charity. It has Good demonstrated impact, reasonable overhead spending and is financially transparent. Ottawa Food Bank has a results reporting score of A-, which is above average. 

Founded in 1984, Ottawa Food Bank (OFB) is the main distributor of a network of 122 food distribution agencies (consisting of 27 community food banks, 18 after-school programs, 13 multi service programs, 29 food cupboards, and 25 meal programs). It grows, collects, and distributes food to its member agencies.

A Charity Intelligence 2023 Top 100 Rated Charity

Since 2016, OFB has been publishing a hunger report analyzing the causes and consequences of hunger in Ottawa. It identifies systemic problems leading to hunger, a demographic breakdown of hunger, and the overall status of poverty in Ottawa. It also discusses non-food services provided by food banks. OFB reports that one in seven people in Ottawa are food insecure. According to OFB, 32% of Ontarians surveyed responded that they expected to access charitable services to meet their basic needs in May-October 2023. That is approximately 4.9 million people, or 1.6 times the population of Toronto (as of 2022). OFB reports that 37% of the people served are children and 12% have employment as their primary income.

OFB’s primary program is food distribution. In F2023, it distributed 4,915,171 lb of fresh food, 4,696,900 lb of canned goods, and 138,550 lb of baby food (as part of its Baby Basics program) for a total of 9,750,621 lb of food. In F2023, OFB distributed $8.4m in donated food, and spent an additional $9.2m on purchasing food. OFB reports 493,951 client visits in F2023, up from403,467 in F2022, an increase of 90,484 visits. OFB did not report the number of unique clients it served.

The Community Harvest Farm program is a source of fresh produce for OFB to distribute. In F2023, it grew and distributed 140,201 lb of fresh food.

OFB’s One More Bite program works with Metro grocery stores to flash-freeze meat shortly before the best before date and then distribute it to partner agencies. In F2023, OFB received 1,034,750 lb of protein from participating Metro grocery stores.

Ottawa Food Bank also runs community support programs, such as the Kickstart After 4 program. This program delivers nutritious snacks to children at after-school programs in Ottawa. OFB works with 18 after-school programs and delivered 58,175 snacks in F2023.

It also runs the Summer Nutrition Program. Children who rely on school meal programs don’t usually receive any support during the summer. OFB aims to remedy this. 26 agencies participate in OFB’s summer nutrition program. Numbers of meals distributed were not provided.

OFB’s Baby Basics program aims to distribute baby supplies to low-income communities. OFB states that 5% of food bank clients are babies under the age of two. In F2023, OFB distributed 138,550 lb of baby food and 207,675 lb of diapers, for a total of 346,225 lb of baby food and supplies.

Many food banks are in need of ethnocultural foods to distribute to food-insecure households. OFB’s Global Marketplace Program provides grants to participating agencies to purchase culturally relevant foods to distribute. OFB states that Halal meats (goat, lamb, chicken) are in high demand, as well as oils, plantains, ginger, yams, pita bread, and dates.

OFB also distributed 603,475 lb of non-food items, including 158,200 pounds of household and hygiene supplies, diapers as part of the Baby Basics program,  and 54,000 pounds of pet food. The remaining 183,600 lb of non-food items are not disclosed.

Ottawa Food Bank received $14.0m of general donations, $1.0m of corporate donations, and $897k of grants for a total of $16.0m in donations (after adjusting for changes in deferred revenue). It received a further $1.5m from its community engagement events, for a total of $18.0m in donations and special events revenue. 

It received $8.4m in food donations, based on a value of $3.21 per pound of donated food (changing to $3.52 as of May 2023) as determined by Food Banks Canada. It also received $424k in funding from the municipal government. Administrative costs are 5.6% of OFB’s revenues, and fundraising costs are 14.9% of donations. This results in an overall overhead spending of 20.4%. For every dollar donated to OFB, 80 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

OFB has $18.0m in reserve funds. Excluding donated goods, OFB’s funding reserves can cover one year and two months of its annual program costs.

Charity Intelligence has sent this update to Ottawa Food Bank for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on June 19, 2024 by Ben Dobozy

News articles: Matthew Lapierre, "Inflation is driving Ottawa food bank use to record highs, no end in sight", Ottawa Citizen, September 20, 2022