Food for Life Canada
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.
Fair
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.
93%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 93 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About Food for Life Canada:
Founded in 1995, Food for Life Canada (FFL) is a food bank that focuses on redistributing fresh and nutritious foods to local agencies and residents in the region of Halton. FFL collects unsold and unused perishable food from grocery stores and restaurants. It aims to source three primary categories of food: produce, meat, and dairy, which tend to be the most expensive to buy. According to a recent study, about 60% of food produced in Canada goes to waste. In F2020, the charity provided food to 121 programs across Burlington, Oakville, Hamilton, Milton, Georgetown, and Acton. In F2020, Food for Life distributed $8.1m worth of donated food. FFL distributed 73,892 weekly food bags in F2020.
Food for Life operates local programs such as pop-up food banks and distribution onsite at churches and community centers. FFL’s 15 youth programs work in collaboration with agencies, including Boys and Girls Clubs and Frontline Outreach. It supports 1,612 youth each week who have reduced access to healthy food.
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Results and Impact
Since 1995, Food for Life Canada has rescued over 38 million pounds of food from landfills. FFL states that it has diverted over 51 million kg of greenhouse gas since 1995. The charity reports that every $1 donated to FFL is equal to eight meals.
Charity Intelligence has rated Food for Life as Fair impact based on demonstrated impact per dollar.
Impact Rating: Fair

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Finances
Food for Life Canada received monetary donations and government funding of $2.3m in F2020. It received donated food worth $8.9m in F2020. Administrative costs were 1% of total revenues and fundraising costs were 6% of donations. This resulted in overhead spending of 7%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 93 cents go towards its programs, which is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.
Food for Life has total funding reserves of $891k. Excluding the cost of donated food, the food bank’s funding reserves can cover annual program costs for about 8 months.
Charity Intelligence has sent this update to Food for Life Canada for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.
Updated May 31, 2021, by Shira Wine.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending September
|
2020 | 2019 | 2018 |
---|---|---|---|
Administrative costs as % of revenues | 0.6% | 0.3% | 0.4% |
Fundraising costs as % of donations | 6.2% | 6.6% | 5.9% |
Total overhead spending | 6.9% | 6.9% | 6.3% |
Program cost coverage (%) | 65.8% | 62.0% | 42.9% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $000s |
2020 | 2019 | 2018 |
---|---|---|---|
Donations | 1,990 | 984 | 841 |
Goods in kind | 8,947 | 9,663 | 9,390 |
Government funding | 265 | 170 | 162 |
Other income | 130 | 49 | 7 |
Total revenues | 11,332 | 10,866 | 10,399 |
Program costs | 1,354 | 891 | 842 |
Donated goods exp | 8,947 | 9,663 | 9,390 |
Administrative costs | 73 | 35 | 39 |
Fundraising costs | 124 | 65 | 50 |
Other costs | 5 | 0 | 0 |
Total spending | 10,503 | 10,654 | 10,320 |
Cash flow from operations | 828 | 212 | 79 |
Capital spending | 663 | 19 | 301 |
Funding reserves | 891 | 552 | 361 |
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
0 |
$120k - $160k |
0 |
$80k - $120k |
1 |
$40k - $80k |
8 |
< $40k |
1 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2020
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 905-635-1106