Second Harvest is a 5-star charity with a High impact rating. It is one of Canada’s largest food rescue charities and is financially transparent with a high results reporting grade. 

Founded in 1985, Second Harvest rescues fresh food and delivers it to people in Canada. According to Second Harvest, 5.6 million Canadians are food insecure. The charity also reports that 11.2 million metric tons of unsold excess food goes to landfills across the food industry in Canada each year. Second Harvest currently recovers food from 4,500 food donors and distributes it to 3,000 non-profit and charitable organizations that feed people across Canada.  

In F2021, through its Food Rescue and Delivery program, Second Harvest rescued and redistributed 41 million pounds of food. This is a 48% increase from the 22.3 million pounds of food distributed in F2020. The food was 36% produce, 22% meat & alternatives, 8% dairy & dairy alternatives, 9% baked goods and snacks, 8% bread and grains, 7% water and beverages, 5% prepared foods, and 4% condiments. 83% of food donations were perishable.  

Feeding Our Future is an annual 8-week summer program where Second Harvest serves free meal kits to kids attending summer camps. In F2021, the charity provided 12,995 kits and healthy lunches for 2,500 kids.

Harvest Kitchens is a training program for adults and youth who want to work in the food preparation industry. Program participants work under the supervision of food service professionals. The food they prepare is then delivered to Second Harvest’s food agency partners. 

After piloting in four Ontario communities in F2019, Second Harvest launched its Food Rescue app, an online food donation platform that links surplus food with those who need it. In F2021, 5,000 new users joined the platform. The Second Harvest Food Rescue app helps facilitate access to types of food that are uncommon in the emergency space. Second Harvest also provides emergency funding through its Emergency Food Security Fund which provided funding for 1,385 organizations in F2021.  

In F2021, Second Harvest received donations and special events revenue of $17.2m and donated food worth $98.2m. Second Harvest received government funding of $20.5m for the Surplus Food Rescue Program and the Emergency Food Security Program.  

Administrative costs are 1% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 12% of donations and special events revenue. This results in overhead costs of 13%. For every dollar donated to the charity, 87 cents go towards the charity’s programs. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.  

Second Harvest has $18.0m in funding reserves and excluding the cost of donated food and donated volunteer services, the reserves can cover just over 6 months of program costs.  

This charity report is an update that was sent to Second Harvest for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.  

Updated on June 22, 2022, by Emma Saganowich.