The Global FoodBanking Network

CAPACITY BUILDING: GFN's capacity building focused on essential technical support and catalytic investments to enable member food banks to expand service delivery, build resilience in their operations and the communities they serve, and improve effectiveness. GFN's unique approach in support of member capacity building to extend and scale service delivery enabled members to sustain a third year of heightened need of services. In FY 2023, GFN support included more than 26,000 hours in technical assistance and consultancy to expand the service delivery capabilities of food bank members. Technical assistance combined with GFN financial support and programmatic investments in FY 2023, included US$7,220,932 grants disbursed to support of member capacity building, emergency assistance, child hunger-school feeding support, and similar purposes. Review of the efficacy of GFN's financial support to members found that 96% of GFN's catalytic investment objectives were achieved over the grant period. In FY 2023, GFN established new programming activities based on successful pilot programs in food safety, public policy advocacy, knowledge sharing, and food recovery strategies. New pilot programs included expansion of independent, third-party certification of participating members in meeting or exceeding standards in food safety, food quality management, and process optimization to the highest international standard for commercial food-grade facilities. In FY 23, GFN was invited to participate in the UN Secretary General's Global Crisis Response Group to monitor and report on the impact of the costs of living crisis in vulnerable communities, those served by food banks. Throughout FY 2023, GFN provided real-time situation reports to the Global Crisis Group of conditions reported by members and the challenges facing the people they serve. In FY 2023, the Rockefeller Foundation notably awarded support through GFN to food banks in 10 high-risk, high-need countries to support GFN efforts to increase food access in response to the cost-of-living crisis and increased food recovery from across the supply chain, including the agricultural sector and ports. More than 648 million kilograms of food were distributed across the Network with GFN's focused efforts on improving the variety and nutritional quality of provided by food banks. In FY 2023, 60% of all food distributed was in the following least-processed product categories, with fruit & vegetable distribution accounting for 41% of the Network total. The amount of food provided was approximately 20 kilograms per person, or nearly 60 meals per individual, an increase of 18% compared to the previous year.

EXPANDING SERVICE DELIVERY IN HIGH NEED COMMUNITIES: In FY 2023, GFN further focused capacity development in 21 countries in emerging and developing market economies with high rates of food insecurity and hunger prevalence rates, persistent and high poverty, and limited social protections for vulnerable populations. In FY 2023, this cohort served 69% of all people reached and increased the rate of food distribution volume by 21%, four times the target for the year. FOOD BANK INCUBATOR PROGRAM: In FY 2023, participating members in GFN's Food Bank Incubator program entered the final year of accelerated programming for rapid food bank advancement in nations with higher rates of food insecurity, underserved communities, and with limited or no food bank presence prior to the program. FY 2020 -FY 2023 cohorts included South Asia/India (three members), Southeast Asia (seven members in six countries) and sub-Saharan Africa (six members/countries). In FY 2023, Incubator members exceeded many of the more established food banks in the amount of product distributed, increasing to more than 18.4 million kilos of food, a 32% growth over the previous year. NEW FOOD BANK DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: FY 2023 represented the second year of GFN's New Food Bank Development program (NFBD), created for the identification, recruitment, and training of potential new food bank partners in high need communities where food banks do not exist or in the most nascent stage of development. NFBD prioritizes the recruitment of new food banks in communities with persistently high prevalence rates of hunger or food insecurity (15% or more) and where the food bank model does not exist or is nascent in development. GFN's NFBD programming includes research and identification of potential food banks or similar community-based human services partners. Organizational leaders participate in virtual/webinar introduction to the food bank model, leading to a food bank assessment and planning protocol, dissemination of food bank operations toolkits, one-to-one consultation with program experts, and GFN's own assessment of organizational potential through in-field and remote determinations. At the end of FY 2023, NFBD expanded GFN's membership from 44 countries at the outset of the fiscal year to partner food banking organizations in 53 countries.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: GFN supports member food banks through research and evidence-based promotion of the food bank model in improving food security, humanitarian response, and food loss and waste (FLW) mitigation. SOCIAL RETURN ON INVESTMENT: In FY 2023, developed a Social Return on Investment (SROI) model to identify the linkage between food banks and improved food security and health outcomes measured from an economic basis and multiplier effects in social impact return. An international team of academics, economists, and social scientists from India, Mexico, South Africa, and the U.S. led the work. The project estimated an SROI, conservatively measured in economic benefit of improved health outcomes of between US$4.66 to US$6.76 for each $1 invested, with a high of US$10.59. PUBLIC POLICY-THE GLOBAL FOOD DONATION POLICY ATLAS: In FY 2023, GFN in partnership with Harvard Law School's Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC) completed the second round of legal and policy research of participating countries as part of The Global Food Donation Policy Atlas. The Atlas provides a first-of-its-kind look at the current state of food donation laws and policies in participating countries along with country-specific policy recommendations for strengthening food recovery efforts. The Atlas tool is accessible online for policymakers, food banks, and advocates to better understand the food donation policy landscape across countries, and country-by-country research of executive summaries, legal guides, and specific policy recommendations. In FY 2023, research on the legal frameworks and recommendation for nine additional countries were completed, bringing the global total to 26. In addition, GFN and the FLPC provided technical assistance and training to food banks in eight countries, engaging numerous stakeholders from government, legislators, and the private sector with training/research, and related activities to advance food donation policy goals. Since the Atlas project's inception in 2019, of the 26 countries engaged, 6 countries enacted a national food loss/waste (FLW) law or policy directly or influenced by the Atlas, five countries enacted a food donation liability protection policy, five countries implemented food safety for donation laws or guidance, and five countries passed food waste deterrence policies. FOOD LOSS AND WASTE MITIGATION AND CLIMATE: In FY 2023, GFN continued to advance food bank engagement in FLW mitigation, both through normative food recovery and redistribution activities of food banks, as well policy advocacy, exploration of financial instruments for FLW/climate impact measures from greenhouse gas reductions, and development of carbon and methane mitigation measures of food banks' food recovery activities with the Methane Hub Project. Owing to this work and the current role and potential impact of food banks to further reduce FLW and climate changes, in FY 2023 GFN attended COP 27 with evidence supporting investment in FLW reduction via food banking.

KNOWLEDGE SHARING: Central to GFN's programmatic model is education, knowledge sharing, and training made available across borders, cultures, contexts to aid food bank development for increased service delivery, greater programming and operational effectiveness and improved efficiency. Knowledge exchange, education and training is a core element of GFN programming through the development of materials, tool kits, webinars, and affinity groups of food banks and personnel (such as food sourcing, warehouse operations, or development.) In FY 2023, with travel resuming in much of the world, GFN was able to move beyond remote, digital knowledge sharing and knowledge networks, to more intensive and in-person engagement, such as food bank fellowship exchanges, field review and training, and most notably GFN's premier annual convening, the Food Bank Leadership Institute. FBLI Since 2006, GFN's Food Bank Leadership Institute (FBLI) has an important element in education and training activity, becoming the world's foremost gathering of food banks and community-based food assistance leaders. In FY 2023, GFN was able to return to the in-person convening of food bank leaders from across the world along with other stakeholders from business, government, foundations, and academia for the first time in three years. FBLI 2023 was held in Mexico City, co-hosted by GFN founding member BAMX, attended by more than 300 people from 42 countries.