Feed Ontario (Ontario Association of Food Banks) is 5-star, financially transparent charity. It has Good demonstrated impact and a strong results reporting grade. Its overhead spending is within Ci’s reasonable range. It has $6.2m in reserve funds, which can cover 11 months of program costs.

Founded in 1992, Feed Ontario (previously called Ontario Association of Food Banks) strives for food security for everyone in Ontario. The charity works with its network of 1,200 organizations to provide hunger relief and advocate for solutions to end food insecurity. In its 2022 Hunger Report, Feed Ontario reports that the province saw over 587,000 people access food banks between April 2021 and March 2022. There was a total of 4,353,880 visits, which is a 15% increase from F2021, and a 42% increase from the 2019 pre-pandemic number of visits. From January to September 2022, a third of food bank clients were first time users. The charity reports that two thirds of food bank users have less than $100 left after paying for housing each month. Feed Ontario adds that the current strain put on food banks by the government and the private sector is unsustainable.

Feed Ontario is A Charity Intelligence 2022 Top 10 Canadian Food Bank.

To fight hunger in Ontario, the charity runs three main programs: FeedON, Feed Possibility and Feed Change. Feed Ontario does not provide a full breakdown of program spending.

FeedON

Feed Ontario provides fresh, frozen and shelf-stable food to its network of food banks. In F2022, it reports distributing 8,188,407 lb of food, 49% of which was fresh and frozen. It distributed 2,930,167 lb of dairy products, 2,853,786 lb of pantry foods and 1,131,578 lb of protein. Feed Ontario states that its provincial partners from the milk, egg, chicken, beef, pork and dairy industries provided 3.5 million pounds of local products. The charity adds that it launched its Northern Food Subsidy program in F2022 to increase food bank access in remote northern areas.

Feed Possibility

The charity’s Feed Possibility program consists of initiatives that aim to reduce food waste and increase food banks’ ability to serve their community. The Farm to Food program rescues excess food from farms and uses it to create meals for those facing hunger. In F2022, it collected 600,000 lb of food and prepared and distributed 2.5 million meals. The charity partners with METRO Ontario for its One More Bite initiative. This initiative allows METRO stores to donate excess food to their local food banks to avoid it going to waste. In F2022, 222 stores donated to 56 food banks, rescuing 2.6 million lb of food. Additionally, Feed Ontario grants to its food bank network to help them improve their services and their capacity. In F2022, the charity granted to 22 food banks, which served 164,841 clients.

Feed Change

Feed Change is the charity’s advocacy and social change program. Every year, the charity publishes its Hunger Report, which provides detailed information and statistics about hunger in Ontario. In F2022, Feed Ontario held its fifth annual Hunger Action Month to raise awareness about hunger in Ontario and promote social change. The charity held a virtual MPP breakfast to discuss the link between affordable housing and food bank usage. 20 MPPs representing all political parties attended. Feed Ontario also launched a postcard campaign addressing the affordable housing issue. Participants sent 10,000 postcards to MPPs across the province.

Feed Ontario had total cash donations of $2.6m and donated goods in kind of $17.8m in F2022. The charity’s administrative costs are 2% of revenues (less investment income), and its fundraising costs are 5% of cash donations. This results in total overhead spending of 7%. This means that for every dollar donated, 93 cents are available for programs, which is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. 

The charity has total funding reserves of $6.2m. Excluding the cost of donated goods, Feed Ontario could cover 92% or 11 months of its annual program costs with reserves. The charity’s program cost coverage spiked in F2020, due to an $8.1m covid-19 emergency relief grant from the government that was not spent before its year-end and held in cash.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Feed Ontario for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated June 15, 2023 by Victoria Allder.