Calgary Food Bank
STAR RATINGCi's Star Rating is calculated based on the following independent metrics: |
✔+
FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY
Audited financial statements for current and previous years available on the charity’s website.
A
RESULTS REPORTING
Grade based on the charity's public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.
High
DEMONSTRATED IMPACT
The demonstrated impact per dollar Ci calculates from available program information.
NEED FOR FUNDING
Charity's cash and investments (funding reserves) relative to how much it spends on programs in most recent year.
88%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 88 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About Calgary Food Bank:
Calgary Food Bank is 5-star rated charity with High demonstrated impact. It has above average disclosure with an A grade for results reporting. Its overhead and funding reserves are within Ci’s reasonable range.
A Charity Intelligence 2025 Top 100 Rated Charity.
A Charity Intelligence 2025 Top 5 Impact: Calgary Charities.
Founded in 1982, Calgary Food Bank (CFB) collects and gives out food to Calgarians facing food insecurity. The charity specifically distributes food hampers containing 7-10 days’ worth of food to clients, runs a school breakfast program with Breakfast Club of Canada, and disperses food to other food banks in Calgary.
Calgary Food Bank runs two program groups: Emergency Food Hampers and Other Programs (Breakfast Club, Food Link, and Housewarming Hampers). Across all its programs, Calgary Food Bank distributed 19,123,454 lb of food in F2025. This was made up of miscellaneous items (36%), produce (30%), dairy (14%), grain (10%) and meat (9%). Miscellaneous items included items like condiments, canned fruit and vegetables, pasta and snacks.
In F2025, CFB spent $15.9m on its programs and $44.2m in donated food. CFB did not provide a spending breakdown for its programs in its F2025 annual report or audited financial statements at the time of this update.
Emergency Food Hampers is Calgary Food Bank's main program. During F2025, the charity distributed 202,926 emergency hampers to 135,526 unique clients. Its clients included children (37%), seniors (4%) and people out of work (69%).
Other programs include collaborations with other organizations and street outreach. Through Food Link, CFB provided 2,490,803 lb of food to 81 partner organizations in F2025, worth $8.8m. The charity's outreach teams distributed 298,620 lb of food directly to people in need. Calgary Food Bank also partnered with Breakfast Club of Canada to provide meals in 41 schools.
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Results and Impact
Calgary Food Bank distributed 15,880,838 lb of food through Emergency Food Hampers in F2025. Ci calculated this by removing amounts distributed through other programs from the total food distributed. Through this program alone, each client received an average of 121 lb of food in F2025. Each client received 1.5 hampers on average and each hamper had 78 lb of food.
Calgary Food Bank’s research team published a report covering the charity’s social return on investment (SROI) generated by its emergency food hampers program during F2024. In this report, the charity interviewed 31 clients on the long-term benefits of receiving food hampers and verified its findings with a survey of 1,000 clients. According to the charity, for every $1 dollar donated, Calgary Food Bank generated $9.84 worth of social and economic value.
While Ci highlights these key results, they may not completely represent Calgary Food Bank’s full results and impact.
Charity Intelligence has given Calgary Food Bank a High impact rating based on its demonstrated impact per dollar spent.
A Charity Intelligence 2025 Top 5 Impact: Calgary Charities.
Impact Rating: High
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Finances
In F2025, CFB had total revenues of $73.8m. Cash donations were $26.7m or 36% of revenues. Donations in kind was $44.5m or 60% of revenues. This primarily includes donated food of $44.2m. In F2025, the charity spent $15.9m on its programs. This was 57% of revenues less donations in kind.
The charity distributed $53.0m worth of food in F2025. This includes $44.2m of donated food and $8.8m in food purchases.
Administrative costs were $3.5m or 5% of revenues (less investment income). Fundraising costs were $1.7m or 7% of donations. For every dollar donated to the charity, 88 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range.
As of F2025, the charity has $40.0m in cash and investments. Its funding reserves can cover 2 years and 5 months of its annual program costs. This is within Ci’s reasonable range.
In F2025, the charity paid professional fees of $1.5m, which was equivalent to 23% of the charity's $6.7m in total compensation costs.
Profile updated by Raihan Firosh on June 19, 2026. Comments and corrections may be forthcoming.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending August
|
2025 | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative costs as % of revenues | 5.1% | 5.2% | 4.2% |
| Fundraising costs as % of donations | 6.7% | 7.4% | 0.8% |
| Total overhead spending | 11.8% | 12.6% | 5.0% |
| Program cost coverage (%) | 242.1% | 237.2% | 195.0% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $000s |
2025 | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | 26,652 | 22,129 | 20,137 |
| Goods in kind | 44,536 | 45,379 | 42,118 |
| Investment income | 2,376 | 2,736 | 1,388 |
| Other income | 214 | 85 | 340 |
| Total revenues | 73,778 | 70,329 | 63,982 |
| Program costs | 16,522 | 14,038 | 14,393 |
| Donated goods exp | 44,536 | 45,379 | 42,118 |
| Administrative costs | 3,611 | 3,522 | 2,614 |
| Fundraising costs | 1,787 | 1,643 | 169 |
| Total spending | 66,456 | 64,582 | 59,294 |
| Cash flow from operations | 7,321 | 5,746 | 4,688 |
| Capital spending | 703 | 278 | 2,499 |
| Funding reserves | 40,002 | 33,296 | 28,067 |
Note: 1. CHANGES IN DEFERRED DONATIONS: CFB follows deferred accounting, so Ci adjusted revenue and expenses to show financial information on a consistent basis. Ci adjusted revenue for changes in deferred donations, affecting it by $5k in F2025, ($75k) in F2024, and ($75k) in F2023. 2. CHANGES IN DEFERRED CAPITAL CONTRIBUTION: Ci adjusted donations for changes in deferred capital contributions, affecting revenue by ($81k) in F2025, ($56k) in F2024, and ($110k) in F2023.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
1 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
2 |
$120k - $160k |
0 |
$80k - $120k |
7 |
$40k - $80k |
0 |
< $40k |
0 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2025
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Calgary Food Bank added the following comment in 2014. New comments may be forthcoming.
At the Calgary Food Bank transparency and accountability to the community is taken very seriously. We also recognize that the ongoing sharing of information can occur in many different ways. We encourage all of our donors to contact us directly if they have feedback or cannot find information that they require through our website. Please contact us at 403-253-2059 or info@calgaryfoodbank.com
Learn More: 2023-2024 Annual Report
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 403-253-2059