Daily Bread Food Bank is a five-star financially transparent charity with a Good demonstrated impact score. It has a A- results reporting grade, which is above average. For every dollar donated to the charity, 85 cents are available to go to the cause.

Founded in 1983, Daily Bread Food Bank prepares and distributes food across Toronto to those facing food insecurity through its food bank member network. Daily Bread’s research team publishes reports covering income and poverty trends/issues across Canada, while its advocacy team engages in poverty-focused political activities. According to the charity, food price inflation combined with stagnating wages significantly increased demand for Daily Bread’s programs in F2023, with a 63% increase in client visits compared with F2022. The charity runs three programs: food preparation & distribution; agency support services; and research, advocacy, & kitchen training. The charity spent $26.8m on its programs and grants in the fiscal year ending June 2023 (F2023).

A Charity Intelligence 2023 Top 100 Rated Charity

Food preparation & distribution was $21.9m or 82% of the charity’s program spending. Daily Bread prepares and distributes meals to its clients through its member agency network. In F2023, it distributed 27,951,290 lb of food to 2,561,552 visitors. Compared with F2022, this a 50% and 63% increase from 18,663,088 lbs and 1,574,985 visitors respectively. Distributed food includes vegetables (34%), dairy (19%), grain (16%), meat (13%), fruit (12%), snacks (1%), household (1%), and miscellaneous/other (4%). The charity also prepared close to 220,000 meals for 282,052 unique clients during F2023. By 2024, Daily Bread aims to provide clients with three days worth of food for each weekly visit, an 11% increase from the current 2.7 days provided.

Agency support services was $3.5m or 13% of the charity’s program spending. Daily Bread provides financial support to its members who run 207 food programs specializing in breakfast, prenatal nutrition, snacks, groceries, and hot meals. The charity introduced three new members to its network – Toronto Perth SDA, Church of Saint Stephen-in-the-Fields, and TAIBU-Empringham Food Bank – increasing its network to 132 members in F2023.

Research, advocacy, & kitchen training was $1.4m or 5% of the charity’s program spending. In F2023, the charity published three Click/Hear research reports covering international student food bank usage, rising Canadian household debt, and low tax return filing rates among low-income Canadians. Daily Bread also published its 2023 Who’s Hungry report highlighting increased food bank dependency within Toronto. In May 2023, the charity hosted a televised debate for the Toronto mayoral by-election. The charity states they questioned mayoral candidates on how they will address Toronto's food insecurity and food inflation crises. In F2023, Daily Bread’s CEO testified twice to the House of Commons during hearings on food inflation and the Federal Grocery Rebate respectively. In F2022, the charity ran a petition with 27,407 signatures pushing the Ontario government to reduce poverty by 50% by 2030.

In F2023, Daily Bread received $31.3m donations, a 23% increase compared to $25.4m in F2022. The charity also received $128k of government grants which is less than 1% of revenues excluding investment income. Administrative costs are 2% of revenues and fundraising costs are 13% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 15%. This means that for every dollar donated to Daily Bread, 85 cents are available to go to the cause.

In F2023, the charity spent $26.8m on its programs, which is 40% of revenues, and has a ($1.7m) operating cash deficit. The charity increased its program spend by $7.0m (35%) since F2022, which is a significant increase.

At the end of F2023, Daily Bread had $33.7m reserve funds (cash and investments) which covers 126% or slightly over 15 months of its annual program spending.

Profile updated May 27, 2024 by Julian Dranitsaris. Comments and corrections may be forthcoming.