St. Louis Area Foodbank

What it reported doing in 2024

The st. Louis area foodbank distributed over 43,000,000 pounds of food through more than 550 partner agencies and community programs (pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, schools, senior centers and other community organizations) located in 14 counties in eastern Missouri and 12 counties in southwestern Illinois. The foodbank hunger relief programs include partner agency distribution, mobile programs: food access and resource markets (farms) and food on the move, school markets and pantries, disaster relief, senior food box, and transitional housing.(continued on schedule o)hunger relief programs include: partner agency distribution: partners have access to our 24- hour online ordering system. Partners can pick up their order at our facility or have it delivered directly to their agency. More than 80% of our overall distribution is delivered to partner agencies.farms: it takes a variety of foods to provide a healthy diet. Farms provide pallets of fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy, meats and shelf stable products to community partners throughout our service territory. We distributed more than 5.7 million meals to nearly 56,565 families with 592 mobile market distributions.school markets and pantries: designed to increase food access for students and their families when school is in and out of session. School markets provide perishable and non-perishable groceries and school pantries provide shelf-stable items only to take home. A total of 35 school markets and 2 school pantries provided over 227,166 pounds of food to more than 17,448 children and their families.disaster relief: during a disaster, the foodbank leverages our network of agency partners including food pantries, temporary disaster relief partners, and community programs ensuring that food is available when and where it is needed most. On may 16th 2025, we did experience a tornado in st. Louis city which we responded to. We distributed over 583,995 pounds of food, personal hygiene, and household cleaning supplies through temporary disaster and existing partners and participated for three weeks at a distribution center serving over 1,511 households with shelf-stable food boxes and water.senior boxes: we supplied older adults with a monthly food box filled with vitamin rich ingredients and nutrition resources. A total of 70,134 senior boxes were filled with usda products designed to supplement one meal per day. Transitional housing: we worked with caseworkers at local shelters, treatment centers, and other social service agencies to provide families with a month's worth of food and household items to support their transition from temporary housing into a home of their own. Nearly 85 families were provided more than 2,933 meals through this program.food on the move: this program is designed to meet neighbors with transportation limitations where they are by providing a variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, shelf stable and dairy products in small quantities that are easy to carry while walking or on public transportation. More than 21,215 households and nearly 64,703 neighbors were served through 326 distributions.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 88.9%; rating input score 89
• Program expense ratio: 93.7%; rating input score 94
• Fundraising efficiency: $47.44 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
  • Compensation committee: Pass
  • Independent consultant: Pass
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Pass
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 4.9%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.63; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 1.1%; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 2.9% per year; rating input score 100; 21st percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 3.4% per year; rating input score 100; 26th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 11% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings