Pandemic floods 12 big food banks with $168M in reserves

Some of Canada's largest food banks built up record reserves during the pandemic that are only now beginning to shrink, giving them tens of millions of dollars of financial cushion to feed people through an affordability crisis.

Twelve large food banks across the country collectively held about $168 million in cash and investments last year, roughly quadrupling their reserve balances since 2019. During that time, expenses roughly doubled.

National and provincial food bank associations had an additional $70 million in reserves.

The money came from multi-million dollar surpluses fuelled by pandemic generosity and extraordinary government grants. For some food banks, those surpluses are still adding to their balance sheets.

"Am I struggling right now? No, I'm not. I'm very fortunate," said David Long, CEO of the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. 

"But my concern is … what's going to happen in the next five years."

He said food bank CEOs across the country are nervous about mounting food costs and the housing crisis. Some are already watching their surpluses vanish into deficits as donations dry up and demand for food surges.

"It's a perfect storm of more people needing food and a huge amount of people that have no more discretionary income to give to charities," said Long.

Here's a breakdown of some of these reserves. All data is either from the Canada Revenue Agency or charity financial statements.

Ottawa Food Bank CEO Rachael Wilson said that budget crunch is exactly what she was saving up for.

"We knew that it was going to continue to be a struggle in our community, that there would be economic impacts following COVID," she said. 

"There would be a day where the donations would start to drop but our numbers would continue to rise, and that's exactly what we're doing with those funds now."

WATCH | Why the Ottawa Food Bank says it's built up its reserves:

The Ottawa Food Bank's reserves have shrunk from $22.3 million last year to about $14 million today, Wilson said. That's gone in part to fund equipment at a new building, but also to provide grants to a network of community food banks she said are "absolutely struggling."