A Letter from our CEO: 15 Years of Advancing Food Banks
Fifteen years ago, Bancos de Alimentos de México, Feeding America, Food Banks Canada, and Red Argentina de Bancos de Alimentos created The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN) to power a local approach to improving food access. Their goal: Create a thriving network of food banks around the world, supported by GFN, which would build capacity, scale operations and services, extend geographic reach, rescue surplus food, provide meals and, ultimately, serve people facing hunger worldwide.
Today, this food bank Network thrives; however, visionary community leaders have spurred innovations that make the food banks in the Network more effective, efficient, and resilient. These leaders truly innovate to alleviate hunger in their communities.
This annual report celebrates our 15th anniversary by highlighting many innovations introduced by GFN and Network food banks. And it reviews our work from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021.
Just two years ago, GFN launched a new strategic plan that updated our mission—to nourish the world’s hungry through uniting and advancing food banks—and committed to supporting local food banks to serve 50 million people facing hunger by 2030. This work has become all the more urgent amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the heightened hunger needs that have followed. Indeed, this past year, approximately 40 million people relied on a GFN partner food bank, an increase of 132 percent over the previous year.
Our team is committed to further advancing local efforts to address hunger through food recovery and our partners in 44 countries demonstrate that food banking is a proven solution to address food insecurity, rooted in, responsive to, and respectful of local contexts.
Our work is made possible only through the generous support of donors and partners like you. On behalf of our Board of Directors and staff, thank you for your commitment to advancing hunger relief and building community resilience on a global scale. You make it possible for us to innovate to alleviate.
With best regards,
President & CEO
To nourish the world’s hungry through uniting and advancing food banks.
A world free of hunger.
Our Impact
Throughout GFN’s history, each year of work has been impactful in terms of hunger alleviation. However, FY2021 stands out as our Network was called to meet unimaginable needs because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This past year has demonstrated that there is no question: Food banks are indispensable in the fight against hunger.
Our work necessitates innovation. GFN and the food banks we support are constantly seeking increased impact and efficiency; every day, we’re in a race toward a hunger-free future.
Prior to COVID-19, food banks were steadily expanding across developing and emerging markets worldwide with the support of GFN. As community-led institutions that rely on local resources and capacity to address hunger and build resiliency, the growth of food banks in the last 15 years signifies more than an increase in food aid. Food banks serve as a bridge for government, private, and nonprofit sectors while offering solutions that reflect a community’s unique needs.
In 2017, food banking was a new concept in the Philippines. Rise Against Hunger Philippines was the first known food bank in the country, and donors were uncertain about our legitimacy. Our membership with GFN has given our partners the assurance they were looking for, and for that we are thankful.
Food banks delivered crucial support in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, serving 40 million people in 2020, an increase of 132 percent over the previous year. To meet rising demand related to the pandemic and ensuing economic crisis, GFN partner food banks are serving an average of nearly 200,000 more people monthly than prior to COVID-19.
The simple fact is, that without the formation of The Global FoodBanking Network, more people globally would be hungry, more good food would be unnecessarily wasted, and far less would be done globally to tackle these issues now, to help our children in the future.
Despite staggering challenges to the supply chain and regular distribution models due to COVID-19, food banks sourced more food than ever before. Food banks navigated these challenges with agility and tenacity, developing creative strategies and distributing 882 million kilograms of food and grocery products, an equivalent of 2.4 billion meals to families facing hunger.
Joining the Incubator Program helped us acquire a basic understanding of the food banking model. And thanks to continued guidance from GFN, we have established the tools needed to run the first ever food bank in Ethiopia and have started raising awareness on the issues of food loss and waste.
Food banks power locally led partners to address immediate, short-, and long-term needs in their communities. In 2020, these partnerships made up a network of over 59,000 community service organizations that embrace the responsibility of feeding their communities. Partners include food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, daycares, afterschool programs, and many other organizations.