Food for Thought

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
550912942
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2009–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025
Location
Ojai, CA, USA
Phone
9493518581
Rating
87
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Nonmonetary Support N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$68,433
Expenses
$102,347
Assets
$118,295

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • THERESA BULLA-RICHARDS (President)

People named in this filing

  • HELEN PETROFF (Secretary)
  • THERESA BULLA-RICHARDS (President)
  • MARY JO MCLEOD (Treasurer)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

FOOD FOR THOUGHT was organized to improve the nutritional status and food awareness of children in the Ojai Unified School Distict. With the help of staff, board volunteers and donors, our program has helped raise the importance of healthy childhood nutritional practices and the intregal role of agriculture in our community. Our program components are nutrition education, garden-based learning, agricultural literacy through farm field trips, advocating fresh local seasonal produce in all school meals, and minimizing the ecological footprint of our school system by minimizing landfill waste, use of toxic chemicals, conserving energy, water, paper and other resources.

What it reported doing in 2025

Food for Thought Ojai operates and maintains school gardens at public schools in Ojai, CA. for the purposes of educating children about good nutrition, garden-based foods, and healthy eating choices. For the current school year, we were active on 3 Ojai Unified School District elementary school campuses, Topa Topa, Mira Monte, and Meiners Oaks. Our employee duties include setting up activities for school children in the garden on a weekly basis, regular garden maintenance, and interacting with staff and community.Our tools are standard garden tools such as small shovels and rakes, wheelbarrows, watering cans, etc. Twice a year, our staff provides nutrition lessons in the classroom for grades k-6, in addition to the weekly garden lessons.

Operating model

Revenue model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent revenue detail to tell how this nonprofit funds its work.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 96
  • Transparency & Controls: 82
  • Sustainability: 21
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 89.8%; rating input score 90

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -49.6%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.16; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 39.1%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 0.2% per year; rating input score 100; 48th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 0.3% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 5% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 89.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $92K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 6 of 6 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2009 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 12/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 51/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 5/100.