Greater Vancouver Food Bank is a 5-star financially transparent charity with a High impact rating and an excellent A results reporting grade. It also has a reasonably sized reserve fund. For every dollar donated, 85 cents are available to go to the cause.

Founded in 1983, Greater Vancouver Food Bank (GVFB) distributes food to those in need by distributing food through four locations in British Columbia and through its 150-member agency network. The charity specifically distributes food itself at facilities located in Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, and North Shore. Its agency network includes food banks, shelters, schools, and similar organizations.

The charity runs two programs: food distributed to individuals and agency support services, which includes both supplying food and grants to its agency network. It spent $13.1m cash on its programs and distributed $17.2m worth of food in the June 2024 (F2024) fiscal year.

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Food distributed to individuals was 53% of this charity’s program spending. In F2024, the charity distributed 4,700,000 lb of food (68% fresh food and 32% non-perishables) to 27,373 unique individuals. According to the charity, 7,029 of its clients were first-time food bank users in F2024. The charity also diverted 80,000 lb of unharvested apples from provincial farms from landfills during F2024.

Agency network support was 47% of this charity’s program spending. GVFB distributed 4.2m lb of food and $451,607 worth of grants to 150 organizations in F2024. The charity did not disclose how many unique individuals visited its agency network.

Greater Vancouver Food Bank’s F2024 audited financial statements follow activity-based costing – a best practice. This means it clearly shows its program, administrative, and fundraising expenses on its audited financial statements.

In F2024, GVFB received $23.3m worth of cash donations (100% of cash revenue excluding investment income) and no government funding. It received $18.0m worth of cash donations in F2023. The charity also received $17.2m worth of donated food during F2024.

Administrative costs are 3% of total revenue less investment income and fundraising costs are 11% of cash donations, meaning GVFB’s total overhead is 15%. For every dollar donated, 85 cents are available to go to the cause, which is within Ci’s reasonable range.

In F2024, GVFB spent $13.1m on financing food distribution operations (16% increase from $11.3m spent in F2023) and distributed $17.2m worth of food (6% increase from $16.2m worth of food distributed in F2023).

Greater Vancouver Food Bank is establishing a new food distribution facility in Vancouver to increase its food distribution capabilities. This explains why its capital expenditures have increased from $774k in F2023 to $3.7m in F2024.

At the end of F2024, GVFB had $32.2m worth of net reserve funds (cash and investments). This covers 246% or two years and six months of its annual program spending.

Profile updated by Julian Dranitsaris on May 27, 2025. Comments and corrections may be forthcoming.

Questions or thoughts? Contact jdranitsaris@charityintelligence.ca.