Daily Bread Food Bank

About Daily Bread Food Bank:

Founded in 1983, Daily Bread Food Bank (Daily Bread) is the largest food bank in Toronto. In F2017, Daily Bread distributed food to 175 other food banks and meal programs across the Greater Toronto Area. Daily Bread works with its partners in providing food and assistance to people struggling with hunger in the Toronto area. New in F2016, the charity created the Training & Development Centre to offer courses and certifications for other food programs such as Safe Food Handling training and Crisis Intervention certification. Daily Bread also aims to reduce poverty through research, education and advocacy both locally and nationally. Finally, the charity aims to educate and engage youth and adults to explore the issues surrounding hunger and poverty.

In F2017, Daily Bread collected and distributed over 9 million pounds of food to its partners, of which 19% were vegetables and 15% were meat & alternatives. The charity created 9 nutritional key performance indicators in F2017 that will help Daily Bread track the servings and nutritional content of the food that is distributed. Daily Bread provides homemade meals to shelters and drop-in programs in Toronto through the charity’s kitchen. In F2017, Daily Bread reported it sent 5,000 fresh meals to shelters, hostels and poor neighbourhoods every week from its kitchen.

Daily Bread reported that almost 50% of its partnered food programs participated in one or more training courses in F2017. Of the 566 staff and volunteers that enrolled in training programs, 133 people received certification in Non-Violent Crisis Intervention, and 95 people received a certification in Safe Food Handing.

The charity publishes an annual Who’s Hungry Report which details the causes, consequences and social effects of poverty in Toronto. This report is often referenced by the media, government and other non-profit organizations for current statistics of hunger and poverty in Toronto. The charity reported that the 2016 Who’s Hungry Report involved interviewing 1,200 food bank clients and reached a total of 20.9 million people around the world.

After serving 2 years as CEO of Dixon Hall Neighbourhood Services, Neil Hetherington was named the new CEO of Daily Bread Food Bank in January 2018.

Results and Impact: From the charity’s Farm to Food Bank initiative of working with 15 local farms in Ontario, along with other fresh food initiatives, 33% of all food shipped by Daily Bread was fresh. The charity reported that it prepared 82,220 meals for its partners in F2017 in its own kitchen. Charity Intelligence gave Daily Bread an impact rating of Fair for proven impact per dollar (see impact grid on the bottom right).

Financial Review:

Daily Bread Food Bank is one of Canada’s Major 100 charities, which received monetary donations of $7.9m in F2017. Additionally, it collected donated food worth $11.7m in F2017, an 88% increase over F2016. Administrative costs are 5% of total revenues and fundraising costs are 14% of total donations. For every dollar donated to the charity, $0.81 goes towards its program, which falls within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Daily Bread has total funding reserves of $4.7m. Excluding the cost of donated food, Daily Bread’s funding reserves can cover program costs for 10 months.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to Daily Bread Food Bank for review. Comments and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated June 11, 2018 by Derek Houlberg.