Edmonton’s Food Bank is our city’s oldest and largest food rescue charity. It was founded as the Edmonton Gleaners Association in 1981, and has rescued surplus food from manufacturers, grocers, and distribution warehouses across the city ever since. What started with just a few locations has grown to over 110 food industry partners donating food to help people in need. Edmonton’s Food Bank visits each site at least once per week collecting surplus food and donations from the public at the same time. Last year, we rescued over 4 million kilograms of surplus food, including everything from overstocked dairy products to produce and frozen meat.
Food Bank truck ready to pick up food donations
How is this accomplished?
Edmonton’s Food Bank has 20 trucks varying in size from 1 to 5 tons plus cargo vans for smaller donation pick-ups. All but a couple vans are equipped with refrigeration units to keep food at the optimal temperature for food safety. In 2024 our fleet travelled 223,630 kilometers collecting and delivering food. That distance is equal to travelling the entire Trans Canada highway west to east 29 times!
The Food Bank’s trucks are on the road up to five days a week collecting donations. Our drivers have routes of between six and eleven regular stops each day where they rescue surplus food from food industry partners and pick up public donations from grocery stores. Additional stops are added based on community food drives and donations. Once they complete their route, drivers bring the food back to our main warehouse to be sorted and redistributed through our food hamper programs and to our agency partners.
After the collected food is sorted and repackaged it is shared with our 380 agency partners as well as put into hampers. Our other trucks then begin taking food hampers to our depots for people to pick up, or dropping off bulk orders of food to our agency partners for use in their programs.
A Food Bank truck unloading at a depot.
Getting food to those in need
We have about 80 depots located in neighbourhoods throughout the city where people can pick up their hampers close to home. In the first four months of 2025, over 44,000 people have been served monthly through our hamper programs. Approximately 500,000 meals and snacks are served to vulnerable community members through our partner agencies like Hope Mission, The Seed, IFFSA and more. Our expertise is in collecting and moving food, getting it to those who need it most, freeing our partner agencies to focus on their areas of expertise - be that housing, shelter, or counselling. This reduces duplication of services and ensures resources go to where they are most needed, while food is shared equitably for those in need.
Our transportation network is just one part of how we fulfill our mission to collect surplus food and distribute it to those in need around Edmonton. It is because of your donations of food, funds, and time that we can meet the need and give hope to those facing food insecurity.
