Founded in 1983, Greater Vancouver Food Bank (GVFB) helps those facing food insecurity through various food support programs. The charity states that one in eight Canadians is food insecure, and providing emergency food supplies alone is not a long-term solution. Using a three-pronged approach, GVFB aims to provide high quality food, improve food knowledge and cooking skills, and promote food access in a welcoming environment through local partners.

Greater Vancouver Food Bank provides food to those in need in two main ways. It operates food banks and distribution centres to directly serve clients and it indirectly reaches people in need by sending food to Community Agency Partners (CAPs). GVFB also runs in-house programs to teach healthy cooking skills to children and their families. The charity reports that 18% of its program spending is on Community Programs but does not provide a breakdown of its food operations.

Greater Vancouver Food Bank collects, buys, and distributes food at its four centres in Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, and the North Shore. In F2020, GVFB distributed more than 4.9 million pounds of food (4.7 million in F2019). Around 50% of food items were fresh or perishable. In total, around 8,500 people use GVFB’s services each week, 24% of whom are children and 15% are seniors. In F2020, Greater Vancouver Food Bank moved to a new head office and storage location in Burnaby. It reports that its new location includes 30,000 square feet of warehouse space, allowing the charity to increase its cold storage capacity by 400%.

GVFB also donates food and equipment to more than 80 local Community Agency Partners. In F2020, the charity’s local partners received more than 40,100 individual visits. During the year, GVFB received a federal government grant as part of Food Banks Canada’s covid-19 relief plan. It used a portion of its grants to buy new industrial-sized fridges and freezers for 14 agency partners.

Greater Vancouver Food Bank runs food skills workshops to build knowledge and skills surrounding healthy eating. Its Project CHEF (Cook Healthy Edible Food) program teaches nutrition and healthy cooking to children between kindergarten and grade seven. In F2020, Project CHEF moved online, posting 100 family-friendly recipes and 12 instructional videos.

Greater Vancouver Food Bank is a Major 100 charity, one of Canada’s largest charities, with $15.4m in cash donations and $10.6m in donated food and goods in F2020. It also received $508k in government funding during the year. Administrative costs are 3% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 11% of cash donations. This results in total overhead spending of 14%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 86 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

GVFB has total funding reserves of $13.4m. Excluding the cost of donated food, its funding reserves can cover annual program costs for around 2.4 years. GVFB’s program cost coverage ratio spiked in F2020 mainly due to a 75% increase in donations from the year before.

Charity Intelligence has sent this update to Greater Vancouver Food Bank for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on June 11, 2021 by Eric Zhao.