Grocery Foundation is a 1-star charity that is not financially transparent. Its results reporting score is C+, which is below average. Its overhead spending is outside Ci’s reasonable range. Its reserve funds can cover one year and two months of annual program costs. 

Founded in 1979, Grocery Foundation fundraises and provides grants for school nutrition programs. The charity states that at least one in three Canadian children lives in a home struggling with food insecurity. Grocery Foundation operates in Ontario, Western Canada, and Atlantic Canada. 

The charity’s sole charitable program is its School Breakfast Program, which funds programs that offer breakfasts to students in a participating school. In F2023, the charity reported funding 166,311 meals in Atlantic Canada, 941,619 in Western Canada, and 2,701,687 in Ontario. 

The charity also operates two fundraising campaigns. In F2023, these campaigns raised $4.9m and $4.0m respectively. The charity reports that the proceeds from these events were donated to school nutrition programs. In its T3010 filing with the Canada Revenue Agency, the charity reports $1.8m in grants to qualified donees, primarily conducting food programs but also including $600k to Kids Help Phone. The audited financial statements disclose an additional $444k going to the Voucher program, providing gift cards for food. The charity provides no detail about the remaining $4.2m in spending to a reported 3,000 additional programs.

Toonies for Tummies encourages shoppers to donate money at checkout. The Night to Nurture is a fundraising gala in partnership with Kids Help Phone. The gala is hosted for grocery store executives, entertained by Carly Rae Jepson in 2024. 

Grocery Foundation received $8.9m in donations in F2023. Administrative costs are 4% of revenues (less investment income). Fundraising costs are 33% of donations. Total overhead spending is 37%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 63 cents go to the cause. This is outside Ci's reasonable range for overhead spending. Grocery Foundation has funding reserves of $7.3m which can cover one year and two months of annual program costs. 

The charity spent $1.8m on grants to school nutrition programs. The charity does not disclose where the remaining $4.2m expenditure goes. 

The charity only posts summarized audited financial statements on its website. Its auditor notes that these "summarized statements do not contain all disclosures required by Canadian accounting standards. The summary financial statements is not a substitute" for the complete audited statements. As such, Charity Intelligence has scored Grocery Foundation as not fully transparent on its financials.  

In its annual filings with the Canada Revenue Agency, Grocery Foundation has not reported any full-time or part-time employees since F2016. However, it did report paying $624k in professional and consulting fees in F2023, $406k in F2022, and $389k in F2021.  

This report is an update that has been sent to Grocery Foundation for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.  

Updated on June 6, 2024 by Stellar Zhang.