Interfaith Food Bank Society of Lethbridge is a 5-star charity with a High impact score. It is financially transparent, has reasonable overhead costs and an above average results reporting grade. With its current reserves, the charity can cover one year of annual program costs.

Founded in 1989, Interfaith Food Bank Society of Lethbridge (Interfaith Food Bank) provides food and resources to individuals, families and seniors in need. The charity distributes food and clothing, refers people to other community and government agencies, and operates community kitchens and a garden.  

A Charity Intelligence 2023 Top 100 Rated Charity

In F2022, Interfaith Food Bank served 19,609 clients. Of these clients, 56% were women, 42% were children, 20% were Indigenous people, 14% were new Canadians, and 4% were seniors. Also, 6,887 of clients (35% of total) have no income or rely on social assistance, pension, employment insurance, or student loans for income, and 1,040 of clients (5%) rely on wage-based income.

Interfaith Food Bank’s food program distributed 8,123 hampers in F2022. These included 900 diabetic bundles, 370 baby bundles, 329 birthday bundles, and 256 pregnancy bundles. In October 2022 Interfaith Food Bank started offering Muslim Friendly Hampers, distributing a total of 322 in F2022.

Following the covid-19 pandemic, the charity started the Food Share program. This program provides food stocks and supplies to urban and rural community programs and food banks. In F2022, Food Share partners received 336,326 pounds of food. Of these, 47% went through the Southern Alberta Food Hub, 23% through the Urban Food Share program, 23% through the Rural Food Share program, and 7% pounds went through the Permanent Supportive Housing Coalition. The Supportive Housing Coalition gives groceries to housing units for people in need.

The Interfaith Chinook Country Kitchen runs cooking classes that teach participants to cook healthy meals on a limited budget. In F2022 the kitchen ran 177 adult sessions with 1,114 participants. Additionally, it ran 100 youth sessions with a total of 447 participants. Interfaith Food Bank also has the Co-op Community Kitchen that is used for group cooking classes and community programming. In F2022 it had 24 user groups with 1,783 participants.

The Interfaith Learning Garden grows fruits and vegetables for the charity’s cooking classes and food distribution program. The charity runs workshops where clients can learn about growing food. In F2022, the garden produced 450 pounds of produce. It ran 35 tours, event sessions, and workshops with over 500 participants.

Interfaith Food Bank Society of Lethbridge had $1.3m in monetary donations and special events fundraising, along with $2.4m in donated food in F2022. Administrative costs are 10% of revenues (excluding investment income), and fundraising costs are 9% of cash donations. This results in total overhead spending costs of 18%. For every dollar donated, 82 cents go towards the charity’s programs, which is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. 

Interfaith Food Bank Society of Lethbridge has $803k in reserve funds. These are the charity’s cash and investments. The charity can cover one year of annual program costs with its current reserves. 

Charity Intelligence sent an update of this report to Interfaith Food Bank Society of Lethbridge for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Profile updated on June 23, 2023 by Alessandra Castino.