Greetings from The Global FoodBanking Network!

I am pleased to share our FY2017 Annual Report, which lays out the strategies, progress, and impact of our organization for the period July 2016 to June 2017.

This year The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN) served organizations in 32 countries that together distributed more than 940 million pounds of food to over 7.11 million people in need.

FY2017 marked a period of growth, as GFN welcomed three new certified members in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Panama to its network. GFN’s certification program continues to provide consistent operating, legal, and financial standards that all GFN certified members meet. As food banking organizations move through the certification process, it is our goal to provide targeted technical support and to share best practices that help leaders build more effective and sustainable organizations. As Julien Bullaird from Banco de Alimentos Republica Dominica said, “GFN support is invaluable, not only to help us to reach new donors, but also to help us to build a strong and more credible organization.”

As we shared last year, after nearly a decade of starting food banks in communities where they are needed, GFN is refocusing on the second part of its mission: to strengthen food banks where they exist. In FY2017, GFN increased its programmatic focus and investments in capacity building to help organizations in our network serve more people facing hunger in their communities. This year GFN shifted the focus of this program from supporting short-term hunger relief to interventions that will enable relief more sustainably. We primarily invested in infrastructure-enhancing opportunities—those that will allow food banking organizations to reach more people facing hunger over the long term. Due to this capacity building program, more than 865,000 people were provided with safe and nutritious food in FY2017. The majority of these people will continue receiving nutritious meals in years to come thanks to these investments.

In light of the international community’s commitment to ending hunger by 2030 through the Sustainable Development Goals, this year GFN launched a campaign to extend its network’s food bank service to 1.2 million more people facing hunger by the end of calendar year 2018, bringing the number of people nourished to 8 million. Both food banking organizations and financial partners rallied behind this goal, and through a match opportunity made possible by a generous anonymous donor, $1 million was raised to make this commitment a reality. We look forward to keeping you apprised of our progress on the 8 Million by 2018 campaign in FY2018.

Finally, a number of exciting organizational changes occurred this year. The GFN board of directors welcomed a new chair and vice chair in Alan Gilbertson of FoodForward SA and Jason D. Ramey of Grant Thornton LLP, respectively and benefited from the addition of international development experts Catherine Bertini of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and Martin Burt of Fundación Paraguaya.

The organization moved to a new office at 70 E. Lake Street. A brand update and new website were launched to better highlight GFN’s goal of uniting and empowering organizations to mount a more effective fight against hunger.

GFN’s work is only made possible through the support of donors and partners like you. On behalf of our board of directors and staff, thank you for your commitment to hunger relief. It is my hope that this report lays out how your investments have helped establish and grow food banking organizations that are mitigating hunger around the world.

Despite the accomplishments of this past fiscal year, one in four people globally suffers from malnutrition, and millions could be reached through food banking. I hope you will continue to partner with us to scale the food banking solution to help nourish the world.

With best regards,

Lisa J. Moon