Edmonton’s Food Bank is a five-star financially transparent charity with a High demonstrated impact score. It has an A results reporting grade, which is above average. Its reserve funds could cover annual program costs for one year and 10 months, which is within Ci’s reasonable range.

A Charity Intelligence 2025 Top 10 Impact: Canadian Food Banks.

A Charity Intelligence 2025 Top 100 Rated Charity.

Founded in 1981, Edmonton’s Food Bank (EFB) collects and distributes food through 81 community food depots and more than 380 partner organizations, including shelters, churches, and soup kitchens. It sources food through grocery store donations and surplus food recovery, distributes food hampers to people in need, and operates school meal programs. According to its 2025 client survey, 40% of respondents sometimes or often did not have enough food to eat.

EFB’s core program is food distribution, which includes several subprograms: the Retail Food Program, Hamper Program, Meal & Snack Program, S.N.A.C.K. Program, and Second Helping Program. Non-food programs include Beyond Food, a job training and mentorship program, and community garden initiatives. In 2025, EFB spent $10.4m in cash on its programs and distributed $41.2m worth of donated food. EFB did not provide a spending breakdown by program at the time of this update.

Food collection and distribution are the charity’s core programs. In 2025, EFB distributed over 5.1 million kg of food, including 500,000 snacks and meals per month and 7,256 litres of milk per month, as well as 217,275 dozen eggs throughout the year. On average, 1,025 people accessed the pantry each month, and 409 people experiencing unstable housing received emergency food bags each month. EFB also reported supporting more than 100 schools.

Non-food programs represent a small portion of the charity’s efforts. In 2025, EFB’s Beyond Food jobs and training program supported 3,429 registered participants. Its community gardening initiatives added over 130 potato plants and distributed more than 130 kg of seeds, trays, and equipment to 20 community gardens.

Edmonton’s Food Bank follows line-item costing, which does not align with financial reporting best practices. This means Ci had to refer to its T3010 filings with the CRA to report program, administrative, and fundraising costs. The 2025 T3010 filing was not available at the time of this update, and the audited financial statements do not allocate wages across functions, so these ratios are likely understated. In addition, the 2024 audited financial statements and T3010 filings differ by $3.0m in both total revenue and total expenses.

In 2025, EFB received $13.5m in donations (24% of total revenue) and $41.2m worth of donated goods (74% of total revenue). It spent $10.4m cash on its programs and $41.2m in donated goods, representing a total of 93% of total revenue. EFB ran a $3.1m surplus, accounting for 6% of total revenue.

Fundraising costs were reported as $378k, which was 3% of donations, and administrative costs were $358k, which was less than 1% of revenue (excluding investment income); however, as noted above, these ratios are likely understated. Total overhead was 4%, meaning that for every dollar donated, 96 cents are available to go to the cause. This is outside of Ci’s reasonable range, although the actual ratio is likely within the range.

At the end of 2025, EFB had $19.0m in reserve funds (cash and investments). These reserves could cover its annual program spending for one year and 10 months, which is within Ci’s reasonable range.

Profile updated by Ava Anderson on August 4, 2026. Comments and corrections may be forthcoming.