Feeding America
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
Our mission is to advance change in America by ensuring equitable access to nutritious food for all in partnership with partner food banks, policymakers, supporters, and the communities we serve.
- Income
- $5.0 billion
- Spending
- $5.0 billion
- Spent on programs
- 98%
- Reserves
- 0.9 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- donations and private grants, 97%
- Employees
- 421
- Volunteers
- 200
- Highest pay
- $1.2 million, ceo
Source: Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Fair: 57 out of 100. Higher than 18% of charities in its peer group (food and agriculture, over $100m).
Reserves
4 of 35Spendable reserves would cover 0.9 months of spending.
Debt
20 of 20It owes 9% of what it owns.
Living within its means
8 of 15Spending exceeded income by 0% of income.
Income trend
10 of 15Income fell 1% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 1598% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 1 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Strong: 100 out of 100. Higher than 8% of charities in its peer group (food and agriculture, over $100m).
Independent board
25 of 2518 of 18 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
8 of 8Has a written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
7 of 7Has a written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
10 of 10Gave the board a copy of this return before filing it.
Pay set independently
5 of 5Sets its chief executive's pay through independent review and comparison.
Independent check of accounts
15 of 15Its accounts were audited by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
10 of 10Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Reports results. Its tax return states measurable results. These are its own figures and nobody has checked them.
Results it reports
- The national produce program distributed 121 million pounds of fresh produce to partner food banks and related regional organizations.Work delivered
- Regional sourcing personnel generated 105 million pounds of produce for the network.Work delivered
- The national office generated a total of 226 million pounds of produce.Work delivered
- The network secured more than 971 million pounds of fresh produce.Work delivered
- 169 members participated in the national grocery program, yielding more than 148 million pounds of purchased food.Work delivered
- The grocery rescue program secured more than 2.4 billion pounds of product.Work delivered
- Food manufacturers donated more than 896 million pounds of food to partner food banks.Work delivered
- The network distributed approximately 7 billion pounds of food and grocery items to people in need.Work delivered
Read from the return by an AI model and shown only where the wording was found in the return. These are the charity's own figures.
Programs described in its return (4)
- $4.7 billion spent. Food procurement program includes supply chain, logistics and product sourcing services. Supply chain services facilitate the acquisition of food and grocery products for free distribution to Americans in communities across the country. The Feeding America National Office augments donated food and grocery products with produce procured from farmers and growers to ensure a nutritional and well-rounded mix of product is available to the network. A portion of these procurement costs are offset by fees paid by member food banks to the donor/service provider, which may include the cost of packaging, transportation, and processing fees. During fiscal year 2025, the national produce program distributed 121 million pounds of fresh produce to our partner food banks and related regional organizations. Additionally, Feeding America regional sourcing personnel generated 105 million pounds of produce for the network making the total generated by Feeding America national office 226 million pounds. The Feeding America network collectively secured more than 971 million pounds of fresh produce (produce sourced through our other channels is not included in this number). During fiscal year 2009, the Feeding America team launched a national grocery program to obtain lower prices for purchased groceries by leveraging the collective buying power of our partner food banks. During fiscal year 2025, 169 members participated in the national grocery program, with purchases of $122 million in food and grocery products that resulted in more than 148 million pounds of purchased food. Product sourcing facilitates the donation of food and grocery products from major national and regional manufacturers and retailers. Through the efforts of food sourcing staff across the network, and the help of our trusted retail partners, the grocery rescue program (retail store donation program) secured more than 2.4 billion pounds of product. Food manufacturers donated more than 896 million pounds of food to our partner food banks. In total, the Feeding America network distributed approximately 7 billion pounds of food and grocery items in fiscal year 2025 to people in need. This represents a 2 percent increase over fiscal year 2024.
- $99.3 million spent. Member services advances the operations of Network food banks through capability development, consulting, assessment and training. The Feeding America national office conducts a national network standards review for each Network member every 18-36 months to ensure compliance with the highest standards of food safety, management, governance and accountability. Due to the need to social distance during the pandemic and an overhaul of national standards, some standards reviews were delayed. Significant portions of the member services FY25 budget helped to provide grants to member food banks supporting food sourcing and sharing, capacity building, and the development of services reaching communities disproportionately impacted by food insecurity such as communities that are racially marginalized and/or rural communities, the development of innovative charitable feeding programs, and other strategic initiatives. Of all food and funds raised by the national office, more than 94 percent goes directly back to Network members to support programs and services, including more than $239 million of direct support in the form of grants to the Network. Our Member Services program also advances logistics and service capacity through information technology; prepares our Network for responses to natural disasters through planning, information sharing and product deployment through disaster services; offers fundraising and food sourcing capacity building opportunities, and shares best practices and wisdom among Network members through knowledge and learning.
- $12.8 million spent. Public awareness and education services advance awareness of and engagement with the issue of hunger, priming audiences to take action. Audience research tells us the U.S. public has a high passion for hunger and related issues such as health care and housing, and they have a significant role to play in ending hunger through donating, advocating, volunteering and engaging online and offline. Feeding America's marketing and communications program is rooted in the voices of neighbors facing hunger and built to unite and mobilize the public directly and through trusted messengers for both the issue of domestic hunger generally and Feeding America specifically. Awareness, education and pathways to participate in ending hunger are delivered through targeted initiatives such as ongoing storytelling, omnichannel campaigns including PSAs, media outreach and additional marketing and communications programs designed to reach target audiences in relevant channels and at relevant times. These initiatives are created and supported by Feeding America's Marketing & Communications team, world class creative agencies, media partners and content distributers. Together, we act with unwavering commitment to help provide nourishing food and work to end hunger at its roots so everyone can live fuller, healthier lives.
- $73.5 million spent. Our Research and Evaluation Team spearheads critical research initiatives to better understand food insecurity and to continually improve our strategies to end it. We analyze the dynamics at play among the Nation's food insecure individuals and families, the patterns surrounding their use of our services, and endeavor to utilize this data to ultimately create better local feeding programs. Additionally, we investigate our own Organizational operations as a network, identifying opportunities for continual growth and refinement.During fiscal year 2025, we released the fourteenth consecutive edition of Map the Meal Gap, our signature study on overall and child food insecurity in every county and congressional district in the United States. Not only does this study allow our partners, policy makers, donors and the public to understand the picture of food insecurity in their communities, it provides our food banks with data that enables them to target their services to people most in need. Feeding America also released county-level food insecurity estimates for Black and Latino households, providing new insights into racial inequities at the local level. Feeding America produced The State of Senior Hunger in America in 2021 which documents the prevalence of food insecurity among the senior population age 60 and older in the United States, and older adults age 50-59.In order to best use our resources as a network and work toward meeting our collective needs of having more timely neighbor insights now and into the future, Feeding America is scaling no-cost data collection platform to support neighbor intake at partner agencies across the country. This platform is a preferred provider for food banks implementing Service Insights, a network-wide approach to electronically collect consistent administrative intake data from and about the people who access the Feeding America network. Collecting this data electronically, using a common framework, will enable us to have a complete and up-to-date understanding of who we are serving locally and nationally. Feeding America launched a new initiative, the Network Measurement, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Approach, aimed at creating a common and consistent approach to program evaluation, using a shared language, in order to better understand the effectiveness of food bank programs across the network. We hosted our first ever evaluation grant to support local communities to assess and improve their programs.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 30, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 10, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending June 2025.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since January 1990.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated October 7, 2026.
Ratings and checks are our reading of public records, using the published method. They are not a statement about anyone's honesty. If you work for this organization, you can send corrections or results, confirm you want gifts through Veridonate, or ask to be removed from giving.