The Global FoodBanking Network
Powering Communities for Zero Hunger
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Hunger is a solvable problem. Yet, two billion people suffer from moderate or severe food insecurity, meaning they are hungry or at risk of hunger. Without intervention, the lives of those who are hungry and malnourished are stripped of their potential – their health, employability, labor productivity, and ability to raise thriving children – all suffer. Although the greatest concentration of chronically hungry people is in extremely poor countries, more than 25% of the chronically poor and 50% of the chronically malnourished live in emerging economies, where there are few public resources to help. In these communities, meeting the needs of the hungry often falls to community-based non-profit organizations, which struggle to nourish the poor and hungry on shoestring budgets and with limited access to training and know-how. Meanwhile, approximately 15-30% of food in emerging economies is wasted. Hunger is often not a food problem but a logistics problem.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Uniting and Strengthening Food Banks
GFN offers food banks expertise, resources, and connections that dramatically increase their efficiency, assure safety, and catalyze scale. To support food banks in their efforts to provide more food to more people facing hunger, GFN’s engagement package includes:
- Access to a peer network of food bank leaders in over 40 countries to test new approaches and promulgate best practices
- Customized training and expert technical assistance
- Capacity-building grants to drive efficiency, scale, nutrition, and resilience
- Partnerships with global players to support sustainability and growth
- Certification to assure safety, traceability, and legal and ethical compliance
Food banks benefit from different resources depending on their community needs and the phase of their development. Because of this, GFN customizes its engagement package to uniquely meet the needs of individual food banking organizations.
Where we work
Accreditations
Better Business Bureau Accredited Charity 2022
The Center for High Impact Philanthropy's High Impact Giving Guide - featured charity 2020
Awards
Honoree 2019
The Barry & Marie Lipman Family Prize at the University of Pennsylvania
Affiliations & memberships
SDG2 Advocacy Hub 2021
Friends of Champions 12.3 2021
External reviews

Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of clients served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
In 2020, GFN food bank partners served 40,000,000 people.
Kilos of food distributed
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
In 2020, GFN food bank partners distributed 882 million kilos of food to people in need.
Number of agencies served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
In 2020, the food banks in the GFN network distributed food through 59,161 agencies.
Number of countries engaged
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
In 2020, GFN engaged with food banks in 44 countries.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN) envisions a world where people facing hunger can reliably access nutritious meals through food banking, one of the most promising, community-based solutions to hunger. Food banks source food from all segments of the supply chain and then deliver it to an established network of community agencies serving vulnerable populations, thus providing budget-relieving food support at a fraction of the cost while simultaneously mitigating environmental degradation. The results are more hungry people are fed, less food is wasted, and more charitable dollars are spent on addressing the root causes of hunger instead of purchasing food at retail costs.
GFN’s goals:
- Increase the number of people served, especially the most vulnerable
- Increase the pounds of food and grocery product distributed
- Increase the number of agencies served
- Grow the GFN network by increasing the number of food bank members
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
GFN provides food banks with the resources and know-how needed to better serve those facing hunger. Training and knowledge-sharing opportunities are delivered through a variety of ways including the Food Bank Leadership Institute, GFN’s e-Learning platform, and leadership development/ orientation.
GFN certifies food banks to assure that every food bank follows established legal, financial, and operational protocols. Many global partners view GFN certification as a third-party seal of approval validating the food bank’s operations. This can result in stronger support from global partners, leading to more food, funds, volunteers, and other resources critical to a food bank’s growth and effectiveness.
GFN accelerates the impact of its network food banks by offering capacity-building programs – such as strategic grants, customized technical assistance, global partner engagement, fellowship exchanges, and child hunger initiatives – to enhance efficiency, scalability and food distribution.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
GFN currently serves food banks in more than 40 countries. In 2020, 949 food banks in the GFN system distributed 882M kilograms of food to over 59,000 agencies serving approximately 40 million people. GFN is fortunate to have on staff technical experts who have spent their careers developing and refining the food banking model.
GFN is the only truly global organization uniting food banks worldwide. Additionally, GFN works with multinational organizations in the public and private sector and acts as a convener for food banks, related industry experts, and the international development community.
In line with its growing programmatic offerings and impact, GFN is a recognized thought leader in the sphere of hunger relief and food waste. GFN raises awareness on the global stage about the efficacy of the food bank model and how the global movement of food banking is contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
GFN currently serves food banks in more than 40 countries. In 2019, 949 food banks in the GFN system distributed 1.9 billion pounds of food to over 56,000 agencies serving 16.9 million people.
GFN’s intensive technical assistance in areas such as food sourcing, inventory control, agency management, food safety, and organizational governance, has enabled food banks to establish and refine operational protocols, thus resulting in more effective food banks that are poised to grow.
In addition to technical assistance, GFN’s growing capacity-building grant program provides time-bound investments to enable capacity expansions that are then supported on an ongoing basis by resources procured in the food bank’s local community. Grants are leveraged by GFN members in many ways including expanding food sourcing strategies, building out cold chain capacity to increase distribution of fruits, vegetables, protein, and dairy, and designing programming that serves vulnerable populations such as children.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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Who are the people you serve with your mission?
The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN) supports local leaders of food banks in over 40 countries by providing resources and know-how, allowing leaders to better serve the people experiencing hunger in their communities. In 2020, member food banks served approximately 40 million people, including 17.6 million children, 6.8 million adults over 50, and 22.6 million women and girls.
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), Community meetings/Town halls,
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve,
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What significant change resulted from feedback?
We developed our Incubator program in Africa and Asia due to feedback from food banks in our network seeking greater GFN support for developing new food banks in these regions. Our communication strategy has been adapted to provide regular, consistent information to the food banks from a designated relationship manager. Lastly, we changed our annual survey from a paper survey to an electronic one after feedback from a focus group.
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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
The people we serve, Our staff, Our board, Our funders,
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How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?
The technical support and programs offered by GFN are led by the needs and requests of our member food banks. There are several points for engagement and interaction between GFN and the food banks in our Network. We have field services staff (RMs) that serve as the primary contact for food banks in those regions. RMs provide specialized technical assistance on different food bank topics and share GFN resources based on each food bank's needs. We administer an anonymous Member Satisfaction Survey on an annual basis and have seen member satisfaction scores increase significantly over the past year as we've listened to food bank's feedback.
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded,
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback,
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
The Global FoodBanking Network
Board of directorsas of 03/05/2022
Mr. Jason Ramey
Kellogg & Sovereign Consulting
Jacques Vandenschrik
European Food Banks Federation
Catherine Bertini
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Carol Criner
HCL Technologies
Brian Greene
Houston Food Bank
Joseph Gitler
Leket Israel
Sachin Gupta
PIMCO
Paul Henrys
Feeding America
William Rudnick
Cresset Capital
Shenggen Fan
China Agricultural University
Xavier Lazo Guerrero
Poverty Stoplight Ecuador
Gonzalo Munoz
TriCiclos
Fatma Samoura
FIFA
Kumiko Watanabe
Grant Thornton
Allen Ginsburg
DLA Piper, LLP USA
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 03/05/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.