Greater Vancouver Food Bank is a 5-star charity with High impact and a high results reporting grade. The charity has $22m in funding reserves that can cover over 3 years of programs.

Founded in 1983, Greater Vancouver Food Bank's (GVFB) mission is to provide healthy food to those in need. The charity states that one in eight Canadians are food insecure and providing emergency food supplies alone is not a long-term solution. GVFB aims to provide high quality food and promote food access through local partners.

A Charity Intelligence 2022 Top 10 Canadian Food Bank

In total, GVFB distributed 7.1 million pounds of food in F2021, which was distributed through three main channels: GVFB Food Centres, Community Agency Partners, and other local food banks. The charity does not provide a breakdown of its program spending.

Greater Vancouver Food Bank collects, buys, and distributes food at its four centres in Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, and the North Shore. In F2021, GVFB distributed more than 3.9 million pounds of food through its sites (4.9 million in F2020). This food was accessed by 16,395 people, of which 58% were adults, 25% were children, and 17% were seniors.

Greater Vancouver Food Bank donated food and equipment to 112 local Community Agency Partners in F2021, compared to 80 in F2020. Of these 112 organizations, 90 were in Vancouver, 12 in Burnaby, six in New Westminster, and four in North Shore. CVFB distributed 3.0 million pounds of food through its Community Agency Partners in F2021. The remaining food was distributed through local food banks.

In F2021, Greater Vancouver Food Bank distributed $250k to struggling families using grocery gift cards that were collected through grocery store campaigns.

Greater Vancouver Food Bank had total cash donations of $19.7m in F2021. It also received $12.9m in donated food and other goods, representing 39% of total revenues.

Administrative costs are less than 3% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 10% of cash donations. This results in total overhead spending of 12%. For every dollar donated, 88 cents go to the cause, which is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

The charity has total funding reserves of $22.2m, compared to $13.4m last year, representing a 66% increase. This is because donations went up by 124% from F2019 to F2021 while program costs went up by 31%, allowing funding reserves to increase by $15.5m. Excluding the cost of donated goods, GVFB could cover 309% or 3 years and 1 month of its annual program costs with reserves.

Charity Intelligence sent an update of this report to Greater Vancouver Food Bank for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated June 7, 2022, by Sydney Olexa.