Greater Vancouver Food Bank

The Greater Vancouver Food Bank was set up as a temporary relief to the hunger crisis in 1983 and has grown significantly in the three decades since then.

Today the GVFB provides assistance to approximately 16,000 individuals monthly across Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, and the North Shore.

We supported 16,133 people in the last year: 28% were children, 59% were adults and 13% were seniors. We have three specialized nutrition programs for children from birth to 12 years old, as well as one just for seniors. Our Baby Steps Program provides additional monthly support to families with children 0-24 months old. Pre-schooler packs does the same for children 2-5years old and Grade Schooler Packs for 6 to 12 year olds. In addition to our children's Specialized Nutrition Programs, we also have a program specific to seniors.

We also provide food support to 140 Agencies throughout these communities, such as housing agencies, women and children’s shelters and after-school programs, who in turn provide hot meals and snacks to thousands of people each week including those struggling with homelessness. We reach and support a broad spectrum of people in need through our Agencies.

The GVFB is proud to provide our clients and Agencies more than 65% fresh food each week. We know that those who are living with food insecurity can often purchase the low nutrition, highly processed, inexpensive foods like KD and ramen style noodles for themselves. We aim to fill the healthy food gap for them by providing the more expensive, more nutritious foods like dairy, produce and proteins

The GVFB distributed 8.9 million pounds of food last year. Because of our size, scale and unique position in the local food system, we have significantly greater buying power than can be achieved at the grocery store, and can double each dollar donated, maximizing the impact of our donors’ generous contributions.