Founded in 1992, Greater Hamilton Food Share (Hamilton Food Share) is the distribution hub of the Emergency Food Network in Hamilton which is made up of 103 food programs. The charity aims to reduce hunger in Hamilton by supplying food and short-term storage to these local food banks. Its food recovery program takes food from corporate partners that is considered extra and un-salable by food industry standards and redirects it to people in need. The charity’s 2017 annual report states that 90,000 people in Hamilton live in poverty, while 14% of these people count on food banks every month to survive.

In F2017, Hamilton Food Share collected about 2.7 million pounds of food, an increase of 12% from F2016. It reports that 57% of food distributed was fresh or frozen. In its 2017 annual report, it states that 83% of the food received was donated by the food industry, 11% by community food drives and 6% was bought by the charity. It also reports that 75% of the food was distributed to its 11 emergency food member agencies, 19% to Niagara Regional Hub food banks and 7% to other local community groups. Together, the food distributed by the agencies is sufficient to provide a minimum of 6,300 meals per day.

Hamilton Food Share also works with businesses within the city to raise awareness of hunger, its root causes and the impact it creates on the people in need. It also fundraises and facilitates community food drives in support of local food banks.

Results and Impact: Hamilton Food Share reports that for every $1 donated, it can provide $5 worth of food to someone in need. In the charity’s 2017 Hunger Count report, it states that 12,580 people in Hamilton visited food banks in March 2017, 37% of these being children. Charity Intelligence gave Hamilton Food Share an impact rating of Good for proven impact per dollar (see impact grid on the bottom right).

Greater Hamilton Food Share is a Large charity, which received monetary donations of $1.4m and donated food valued at $6.9m in F2017. Administrative costs are 2% of total revenues and fundraising costs are 21% of monetary donations. For every dollar donated to the charity, $0.77 goes towards its programs, which falls within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Hamilton Food Share has total funding reserves of $407k. Excluding the cost of donated food, the food bank’s funding reserves can cover annual program costs for 5 months. This indicates a need for donations.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Greater Hamilton Food Share for review. Comments and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated June 29, 2018 by Derek Houlberg.