The Global Foodbanking Network

ACCELERATOR: GFN's Food Bank Accelerator program empowers new food banks to learn from other food banks, expand services and establish credibility through a cohort approach over three years. The program provides technical and financial support, mentoring, peer-to-peer connections and Fellowship Exchanges, and partnership opportunities that might otherwise be unavailable to partners establishing operations in areas where the food banking model is relatively unknown. Currently, the Accelerator supports two cohorts. The newest cohort consists of three food banks in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines) and five food banks in Africa (Cote D'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Madagascar and Mauritius). Together, that cohort increased the number of people reached by 20% in 2024.

MOBILIZING FOOD SYSTEM ACTION: Food banking organizations make a marked difference in the lives of millions of people and strengthen community and national resilience. They are also agents for change in transforming food systems. In FY2025, GFN united its network to increase understanding about the importance of connecting food surplus with those facing hunger through targeted engagements to food systems players and national governments. GFN continued its partnership with the Harvard Law School's Food Law and Policy Clinic on The Global Food Donation Policy Atlas to better understand national legal frameworks to discourage food loss and waste and encourage food redistribution. In FY2025, the Atlas promoted and encouraged improved food donation legislation in Brazil, Ecuador, France, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam.

Research and environmental impact: because food banking organizations source food from nutritious food surpluses, food banking has gains for both people and planet. In fy2025, gfn members were estimated to avoid 1.9 million kilograms of co2e emissions, the equivalent of taking 443,000 cars off the road. To better understand the opportunity to reduce environemental impact through food banking, gfn developed and implemented frame, a specific methodology to measure food banking's environmental footprint, with a focus on the role it can play in mitigating methane emissions. This methodology was piloted at food banking organizations in ecuador and mexico, and it is expanding to other members of the network.

AGRICULTURAL RECOVERY: To increase access to nutritious food, in FY2025 GFN continued investing into building surplus recovery from farms, packhouses and produce markets. GFN supports these efforts through skills training, knowledge sharing and financial resources to accelerate adoption and scaling of agricultural recovery programs, especially in emerging and developing markets. Currently, 35 GFN food banks have an agricultural recovery program, and in 2024, 26% of food distributed by the network came from agricultural sources like farms, packhouses and markets. In FY2025, GFN hired a new Agricultural Recovery Hub director and launched the Agricultural Recovery Communities of Practice, which provides expertise and guidance to partner food banks looking to start or scale recovery efforts.