The Stop is a 4-star, financially transparent charity with an average B results reporting grade. It has a reasonable amount of reserve funds (cash and investments) and 29% total overhead spending. For every dollar donated, 71 cents are available to go to the cause.

Founded in 1982 and operating in Toronto, The Stop Community Food Centre (The Stop) runs a food bank, four community gardens, and two farmers markets. The Stop grows and distributes food for those struggling to afford groceries. It also runs a tax clinic, workshops for new parents, and kitchen training courses for its clients.

The Stop runs three programs: Emergency Food Access, Community Building, and Urban Agriculture. It spent $2.8m on its programs and distributed $806k worth of donated food in the August 2024 fiscal year (F2024). The charity did not provide any further breakdown of its program spending at the time of this profile update.

Emergency Food Access includes The Stop’s food bank, drop-in meals service, and its two farmers markets. In F2024, the charity served 37,233 meals to 14,031 individuals across two separate locations. According to the charity, it subsidizes food sold at its markets to nearly half of supermarket prices. Its Good Food Market saw 1,353 visitors and operated for 19 days in F2024. Its second market – The Stop’s Farmers’ Market – attracted 12 new vendors in F2024.

Community Building includes services like its tax clinic, parenting workshops, and kitchen training courses. In F2024, The Stop ran 30 parenting skills sessions attended by 53 unique participants. It taught 221 people cooking skills during 30 class sessions where participants also shared 507 meals. Although the charity reported processing 199 tax returns for its clients on its website, it did not disclose the year in which this occurred at the time of this profile update.

Urban Agriculture includes The Stop’s gardening programs ran at its four community gardens (Green Barn, Earlscourt, Global Roots, and Mashkikii;aki’ing). The charity teaches its clients gardening skills and grows and distributes fresh produce at each of its gardens. In F2024, 186 people participated in workshops and agricultural activities across its four gardens (60 at Green Barn, 53 at Earlscourt, 38 at Global Roots, and 35 at Mashkikii;aki’ing). The 53 Earlscourt participants grew 136 kg worth of produce over 16 farming sessions in F2024.

The Stop Community Food Centre is financially transparent as of May 2025. This means its website now posts at least two years' worth of its audited financial statements.

Its audited financial statements follow activity-based costing – a best practice. This means it clearly discloses its program, administrative, and fundraising activities.

In F2024, The Stop received $3.7m worth of cash donations (68% of total revenue), $806k worth of donated food (15% of revenue), and $681k worth of government funding (13% of revenue). Administrative costs are 13% of revenue and fundraising costs are 17% of cash donations. Its 29% total overhead ratio means that for every dollar donated, 71 cents are available to go to the cause.

In F2024, The Stop spent $2.8m on its programs. It distributed $806k worth of donated food – a 32% increase from $611k distributed in F2023.

At the end of F2024, the charity had $4.2m worth of reserve funds (cash and investments) that can cover 147% or nearly one year and six months of its annual program spending.

The Stop paid external fundraisers $18k in F2023 and $30k in F2022. The charity did not report any funds raised by these fundraisers in its T3010 filings with the CRA.

Profile updated by Julian Dranitsaris on June 17, 2025. Comments and corrections maybe forthcoming.

Questions? Email jdranitsaris@charityintelligence.ca