The Lunchbox Fund

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
201232903
IRS 990 coverage
2012–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2007
Location
New York, NY, USA
Phone
9176541897
Rating
84
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Human Service Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,385,680
Expenses
$1,128,432
Assets
$2,652,255
Liabilities
$364,673

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

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • TOPAZ PAGE-GREEN (PRESIDENT & CEO)

People named in this filing

  • EMMANUEL ROMAN (DIRECTOR)
  • CANICE PRENDERGAST (DIRECTOR)
  • TOPAZ PAGE-GREEN (PRESIDENT & CEO)

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

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

Overview

Mission

To facilitate child development and education through offering targeted in-school nutrition as an underpinning to learning interventions. In this way we remove hunger as a barrier to education.

What it reported doing in 2025

School nutrition program: the lunchbox fund is a nonprofit organization focused on funding nutrition programs to vulnerable, food-insecure and at-risk school children in urban, peri-urban, and rural schools nationwide across south africa, in gaza province in mozambique, malawi - ntichisi district and berea in lesotho. Meals are prepared fresh each day on-site by the food preparers and served hot. The children receive their meals in their break time and eat together in groups. The lunchbox fund provides nutrition programs to early childhood development centers, primary and secondary schools, as well as in after-school focused homework assistance and learner skills development programs. In 2025, the lunchbox fund provided over 20.6 million meals to 104,223 children in 1,869 schools across south africa, 1,463,690 meals to 7,930 food-insecure and at-risk preschool and primary school children in the rural gaza province of mozambique, 14,000 meals to 500 children in ntichisi district of malawi and 26,390 million meals to 250 children in lesotho.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 98% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 98% of its reported program spending out as grants.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and liabilities are high compared with assets.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 76
  • Transparency & Controls: 83
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 66
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 71.2%; rating input score 71
  • Program expense ratio: 86.8%; rating input score 87
  • Fundraising efficiency: $36.54 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Fail
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Fail
    • Conducts site visits: Pass
    • Requires grant agreements: Pass
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 78th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 18.6%; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.35; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.14; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 9.7% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 8.6% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 13.7% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 71.2% of revenue deployed · 86.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 7 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $980K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and foreign activity
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2012 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 5 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 30/100.