Harvest Manitoba is a 4-star charity. It is financially transparent, has overhead spending within Ci's reasonable range, and has an above-average results reporting grade.

Founded in 1984, Harvest Manitoba (previously known as Winnipeg Harvest) collects and distributes food to local agencies to combat food insecurity. In November 2019, Winnipeg Harvest merged with Manitoba Food Banks Association, collectively becoming Harvest Manitoba. The charity states that 80% of its food bank clients live below Canada’s poverty line. Harvest Manitoba runs three main programs: food distribution, Meals2Go, and First Steps.

Harvest Manitoba allocated 83% of total program spending to food distribution in F2022. In F2022, Harvest Manitoba received 12.0 million pounds of food, up from 11.4 million pounds in F2021. The charity states that the estimated value of this food is $31.3m. The 12.0 million pounds of food distributed was made up of 49% fruits and vegetables, 16% non-perishables, 9% bread and cereal, 8% dairy products, 8% proteins, and 10% other. According to the charity, 83,000 Manitobans rely on its services every month. It specifies that 36% of its clients are Indigenous and 46% are children. 

Harvest Manitoba’s Meals2Go program accounted for 11% of program spending in F2022. The Meals2Go program provides low-income students kits with two days’ worth of healthy food and snacks. Each kit contains cereals, yogurt, milk, and fresh fruit. In F2022, Harvest Manitoba facilitated the program in six Winnipeg schools.

The remaining 6% of Harvest Manitoba’s program spending was allocated to its First Steps program in F2022. The charity states that one in three babies in Manitoba are born into poverty. As a result, its First Steps program delivers baby kits containing powdered baby formula, baby cereal, diapers, and other infant care essentials to mothers with infants. 

On its website, the charity mentions its Grow-A-Row community garden; however, it does not specify its spending on this program. Harvest Manitoba states that its Garden redistributes produce to over 90,000 Manitobans yearly.

Harvest Manitoba is a Major 100 charity, one of Canada’s largest charities in terms of donations. In F2022, it received $7.0m in cash donations and special events revenue (down 41% from F2021), as well as $32.8m in donated food and goods revenue (up 8% from F2021). Administrative costs are 2% of revenues (less investment income), and fundraising costs are 10% of cash donations and special events revenue. This results in total overhead spending of 12%, compared to 6% in F2021. For every dollar donated to the charity, 88 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

Harvest Manitoba has $8.4m in reserve funds (cash and investments), up 305% from F2020. Excluding the cost of donated food, the charity’s reserves can cover 173% or almost one year and nine months of annual program costs.

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

Updated on June 27th, 2023, by Sydney Olexa.