Food Banks Canada

Founded in 1985, the Food Banks Canada is an umbrella organization representing a national network of regional and community food banks, including provincial associations and food distribution centres.

Food Banks Canada is the voice of food banks in Canada, with members and their respective agencies serving approximately 90 % of people accessing emergency food programs nation-wide. In the month of March 2012, 882,188 people accessed food banks, 38 % are children.

In 2011, Food Banks Canada moved more than 8 million pounds of food industry donations to its members through the National Food Sharing System with voluntary transportation. In addition to food received from Food Banks Canada, community-run food banks rely primarily on volunteers to collect and distribute an estimated 150 million pounds of food per year.

While Food Banks Canada provides food daily for people in need, its ultimate goal is a hunger-free Canada.

To do what we do, we rely on a nationwide network of hardworking volunteers, corporations and donations from Canadians. Food Banks Canada is governed by a Board of Directors.

Hunger Count

Initiated in 1989, HungerCount is the only national survey of emergency food programs in Canada. This annual survey documents the struggle of food banks to keep up with ever increasing demand. The information the survey provides is invaluable, forming the basis of many Food Banks Canada activities throughout the year. Among many benefits, HungerCount allows Food Banks Canada to operate the National Food Sharing System on a “fair share” basis, present accurate, timely information to donors and media, and represent members’ key concerns at a variety of public forums.

Please visit HungerCount 2013 to review the 2013 survey results.

Fork and Spoon Newsletter

The Fork and Spoon is a monthly bulletin published by Food Banks Canada exclusively for their members and affiliate member food banks. For this monthly publication, please visit the members login page. For your username and password please contact the AFBNA office.

For non-members, Food Banks Canada offers In Brief, a publication providing insight and recommendations on the key issues effecting low income and otherwise vunerable people in Canada.

Relieving hunger today. Preventing hunger tomorrow.

Vision: A Canada where no one goes hungry.

Mission: To relieve hunger in Canada every day by:
- Raising food and funds to share with food banks nationally
- Delivering programs and services to Canadian food banks
- Influencing public policy to create longer term solutions

Mantra: Relieving hunger today. Preventing hunger tomorrow.

Values:
Teamwork: We are committed to working collaboratively with our Board, Staff, Membership and Partners across the hunger relief network.
Transparency: We conduct our activities by being open and accessible to strengthen our network and maintain the trust of our stakeholders and the public.
Integrity: We achieve our goals by maintaining the highest degree of ethical standards and by putting our values into action.
Accountability: We are focused on outcomes. We value results and measure our performance against precise goals; we take ownership and responsibility for doing what we say we will do.

Objectives:
- Raise food and funds to share with Food Banks nationally.
- Deliver programs and services to Canadian Food Banks.
- Influence Federal and Provincial public policy to create longer term solutions to hunger.

Strategies:
- Increase the amount of funds raised for national mandate and to share with food banks nationally.
- Increase the amount of safe quality food raised.
- Deliver a predictable stream of food and funds.
- Enhance the ability of food banks to serve Canadians who are hungry.
- Build reputation, presence and impact with key decision makers and stakeholders.
- Affect public policy through advocacy.

Goals:
- Significant increase in funds raised for membership.
- Significant increase in annual food acquisition.
- Higher donor renewal rate.
- Increase in membership satisfaction year over year.
- Significant increase in membership participation.
- Capacity of food banks to accept food keeps pace with growth in volume.
- Canadian’s awareness of Food Banks Canada continues to grow [both aided and unaided awareness].
- Annual progress toward government policy / program changes.