FoodShare is a 2-star charity with Low demonstrated impact and above average results reporting. It is financially transparent. With its current reserves the charity has five months of annual program costs. 

Founded in 1985, FoodShare is a Toronto-based charity and social enterprise that aims to promote access to fresh produce, encourage healthy eating, and combat food insecurity. It advocates for a world where all people can feed themselves and their communities with healthy food. FoodShare Toronto operates based on principles of food justice, which it describes as a process of dismantling underlying inequities and barriers to food access. For instance, it states that racial identity and income level can determine an individual’s location and housing access, which in turn can influence access to grocery stores and affordable food. The charity reports that Black households in Canada are 1.88 times more likely to be food insecure than white households, and that 28.2% of Indigenous households in Canada are food insecure.    

FoodShare groups its programs into three main areas: Fresh Produce, Growing, and Cooking. Within these areas, it operates both community-wide and school programs. The charity also runs advocacy programs. The charity does not provide a spending breakdown for its programs. FoodShare reports that it reached 181,347 people in F2022. It ran 453 community initiatives and 134 workshops. 

FoodShare’s Fresh Produce programs provide fresh fruits and vegetables to people across Toronto. FoodShare delivers food boxes filled with fresh produce to weekly and monthly subscribers, refers community members to local low-cost food programs, and sends produce to school programs. In F2022, FoodShare distributed 3,120,440 pounds of food. FoodShare also runs the Good Food Markets, which bring fresh produce into neighborhoods where farmers' markets are usually not available. In F2022 the Markets went to 45 neighborhoods, compared to 33 in F2021. 

The charity’s Growing programs aim to help people produce their own healthy food. FoodShare helps to create community gardens, provide local workshops on gardening, and set up composting sites to reduce food waste. Through its School Grown program, it helps schools develop their own farms and rooftop gardens. In F2022, it managed six beehives, producing 2,800 pounds of honey. Overall, FoodShare’s community growing sites produced over 45,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables. In F2022, through the Composting program, FoodShare composted 63,700 pounds of food waste.  

FoodShare’s Cooking programs aim to improve nutrition by teaching healthy cooking skills. FoodShare runs individual cooking workshops, as well as group cooking sessions hosted in a professional kitchen through its Community Kitchens program. It also runs a catering company whose proceeds help fund its charitable programs. 

FoodShare’s Advocacy programs aim to raise awareness about food inequality and injustices in the sector. In F2022, FoodShare wrote an open letter to Restaurants Canada calling on it to stop lobbying for lower wages for restaurant workers. In F2021, FoodShare launched the Right to Food campaign to push the City of Toronto to update the Toronto Food Charter. In April 2022, the motion to update the food charter was approved by the Toronto City Council. 

FoodShare Toronto received $6.3m in donations and special events revenue in F2022. It also received $4.4m in fees for service from the sales of produce and their catering services. Fees for service were 38% of total revenues. Administrative costs are 2% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 1% of donations and special events revenue. This results in total overhead spending of 3%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 97 cents go to the cause. This is outside Ci's reasonable range for overhead spending. 

FoodShare has reserve funds of $4.2m. Reserve funds are the charity’s cash and investments. The charity has five months of annual program costs covered by its current reserves.  

Charity Intelligence has sent this update to FoodShare Toronto for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming. 

Updated on August 15, 2023 by Alessandra Castino.