Canadian Foodgrains Bank is a federally incorporated, nonprofit corporation registered as a charitable agency. Since 1983, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank membership has provided over 1,100,000 tonnes of food assistance to people who are hungry in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Eastern Europe. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) provides an annual 4:1 matching contribution of $25 million.

Canadian Foodgrains Bank is owned by 15 Canadian churches and church-based agencies.They pool resources, both human and financial, and work collaboratively together in a Christian Response to Hunger. These members represent 32 denominations.

Canadian Foodgrains Bank, in conjunction with its members and their partners around the world, works to end global hunger by:
 

• supporting international programs to meet immediate food needs, reduce malnutrition, and achieve sustainable food security;
• influencing improvements in national and international policies that contribute to ending global hunger;
• increasing and deepening the engagement of Canadians in efforts to end global hunger.

 

 

What We Do

Hunger related programs supported by the Foodgrains Bank include:
 

• Food Assistance – providing food to people in need;
   
• Food Security– assisting households and communities to produce food for themselves or earn the income they need to purchase this food;
   
• Nutrition – supporting special initiatives to improve the nutritional well-being of people;
   
• Public Engagement – increasing and deepening the involvement of Canadians in efforts to end hunger; and
   
• Policy Influence – advocating for changes in public policy at national and international levels that will enable households and communities to better feed themselves.

 

Since its inception the Foodgrains Bank has distributed over 1.1 million tonnes of food to 78 different countries. Food is distributed based on need, regardless of religious or political affiliation. The Foodgrains Bank no longer ships Canadian grain overseas, instead grain donations are sold on the Canadian market and food is bought closer to the area of need.

Food is used in one of three ways:
 

• To provide immediate nutrition for people in emergency situations i.e. severe drought;
   
• To feed people as they rebuild and replant until a new crop is harvested i.e. after flooding;
   
• To provide food as wages in food-for-work programs where people and their communities work on longer-term projects such as irrigation and improving farmland so that, in the future, people will be able to feed themselves.