2023 Impact Report
By Vivian in Donation on February 22, 2024
Richmond Food Bank Society – 2023 Year in Review
We are pleased to share the impact of your collective efforts that allowed us to serve our neighbours through yet another busy year. With another year of increasing food prices and the ongoing Ukrainian Refugee Crisis, we saw a 34% increase in the total number of visits made to the food bank.
We continue to meet the increased need through the amazing support of our community of donors, volunteers, and staff who stepped up and rallied around our cause and supported us in meaningful ways to ensure continuity of service for our neighbours in need.
In 2023, we worked towards meeting the increasing senior demographic by piloting our Seniors Only (55+) Distribution on Thursday mornings. Our three offsite depots continued to offer a secondary access point for people who were challenged by the distance or the wait-times at our main site. One of our proud initiatives was the launch of our Community Food Pantry project, which allowed us to expand our reach and offer a dignified access to food. Our Peer-Led Food Advocacy Committee created the project to help the vulnerable population access food in an after-hours, publicly accessible approach.
The 2023 Year in Review highlights all the essential work that was accomplished to serve the most vulnerable in our community. We served more people with emergency food assistance and engaged more schools through our school meal program. We were able to accomplish all this through the generous support of our community.
In 2023, with the help and support of our volunteers, we were able to provide grocery assistance to over 4,770 unique households who visited the food bank a total of 59,601 times. Each household was able to receive perishable and non-perishable food items to nourish themselves and their families. To support these households, we recovered a total of 745,708kgs (1,644,004lbs) of food and about 71% of this was fresh and frozen perishable food. We increased our farm partnerships and received almost double the amount of fresh produce compared to 2022. We also supported many other local non profits that have a food program with over 70,707kgs of surplus food.
We are proud of the work that we were able to accomplish in 2023 and the impact that our community of donors and volunteers continue to have on our work and our mission. Together, we are ensuring that no one in our community goes hungry.
Thank You to Our Donors
Our donors continued to support us with vital monetary support and creative fundraising initiatives. Special mention goes out to the following organizations for their compassionate donations of over $10,000:
The Richmond Food Bank Society provides food assistance, advocacy, and related support to community members in need. Every week, over 2,800 Richmond residents access our grocery distribution services. There are 7 scheduled distributions, 5 days a week, at 4 different locations throughout Richmond. As a registered charity and a non-government organization, we rely on the generosity of individuals, community organizations and businesses to further our work and our mission.
