Partnering with a Western Canadian food bank to address food insecurity

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a Western Canadian food bank experienced significant increases in demand for its services and wanted to shift some of their focus to address the root cause of food insecurity to reduce overall demand. In 2023, this food bank distributed over 100,000 hampers to customers within the community.

As part of our yearly pro bono initiatives aimed at creating positive change in local communities, McKinsey partnered with a Western Canadian food bank to develop a strategy to achieve its vision for a community without hunger and prioritize its resources against the highest-impact actions to address the root causes of food insecurity. In this partnership, McKinsey did the following:

• Engaged local food bank leaders and global food-security experts to better understand the current situation and root causes of the problem
• Supported the leadership team to develop new initiatives to better connect with the local support ecosystem (such as improving partnerships with referral agencies and increasing the sharing of information to ensure end-to-end support of those in need of food, shelter, and other social services)
• Collaborated with the food bank leadership to help them develop the organization’s future strategy, incorporating new insights from expert and community consultations
• Helped build skill sets of food bank employees (such as initiative development) and set them up for continued success by sharing our expertise in serving the not-for-profit sector