Second Harvest is a 5-star with a High impact rating. It has an outstanding A+ results reporting grade. For every dollar donated, 97 cents are available to go to the cause. This overhead ratio is likely explained by a change in the presentation of its financial information. See below.

Founded in 1985, Second Harvest collects and redistributes food to non-profits across all Canadian provinces and territories. The charity surveyed 1,400 food distributing non-profits across the country and reported that 36% turned away those in need due to excessive demand for services. According to the charity, this is driven by more than one million Canadians accessing food banks for the first time in 2024.

Second Harvest’s main program is food recovery and distribution. It spent $16.0m cash on program operations and distributed $363.4m worth of donated food in the August 2024 (F2024) fiscal year.

A Charity Intelligence 2024 Top 100 Rated Charity

In F2024, Second Harvest distributed 87,100,000 lb of food to its 5,012-member agency network (40% increase from 53,300,000 lb of food distributed in F2023). This network then distributed this food to 903 communities across the country that reached 4,800,000 unique clients (12% increase from 4,300,000 people served in F2023). The charity provided the following breakdown of food distributed by type: 42% fruits and vegetables, 12% dairy products, 11% grains, 9% prepared foods, 9% meat and meat alternatives, 7% baked goods, 6% water, 3% condiments, and 1% baby formula.

Second Harvest’s audited financial statements follow activity-based costing – a best practice. This means it clearly discloses which expense items relate to program, administrative, and fundraising activities.

In F2024, Second Harvest's charity's auditor completed a material change in how it presented its overhead costs and did not provide context on why it made these changes. Notably, its reported F2023 fundraising expenses decreased from $3.6m before and $1.1m after the restatement. This explains why Second Harvest's F2023 overhead ratio is 24% lower than F2022. Charity Intelligence hopes to learn more from this charity about this change.

In F2024, the charity received $17.5m worth of cash donations and special events revenue. This represents 95% of $18.4m in cash revenue received – total revenue less in-kind donations and investment income. It also received $669k worth of government funding (4% of cash revenue). Administrative costs are less than 1% of total revenue and fundraising costs are 3% of cash donations. Its total overhead spending of 3% means that for every dollar donated, 97 cents are available to go to the cause. 

In F2024, it spent $16.0m cash on its programs which is a 33% increase from $12.1m spent on its programs in F2023 and 86% of cash revenue. It also distributed $363.4m worth of donated food – a 35% increase from $268.6m distributed in F2023.

At the end of F2024, the charity had $19.3m worth of net reserve funds (cash and investments). This covers 121% or around one year and five months of its annual program spending.

Profile updated by Julian Dranitsaris on May 30, 2025. Comments and corrections may be forthcoming.

Learn More: Second Harvest F2024 Annual Report

Questions or thoughts on this profile? Connect with jdranitsaris@charityintelligence.ca.