Texas · Nonprofit
The Houston Food Bank
The Houston Food Bank (Texas) receives grants from 950 organizations whose IRS filings report $170,339,876 to it, the largest being FEEDING TEXAS ($39,216,847). 403 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $435M
- Funders on record
- 950
- Grants received
- $170M
- Net assets
- $150M
What The Houston Food Bank does
Mission
Houston food bank's mission is to provide food for better lives. Last year we provided access to 136 million nutritious meals in 18 counties in southeast texas through our 1,600 community partners which includes food pantries, soup kitchens, social service providers, and schools. In addition to distributing food, we provide services and connections to programs that address the root causes of hunger and are aimed at helping families achieve long-term stability, including nutrition education, job training, health management, and help with securing state-funded assistance.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Food distribution - food distribution is houston food bank's core function. Food, including fresh produce and other select products, are distributed to hunger-relief agencies and other community service organizations including food pantries, soup kitchens, schools, and multi-service centers. These entities then provide direct service to more than 1 million food-insecure individuals each year. The Houston Food Bank distributes the most food in the feeding america network of food banks.
$395,127,955 spentof which $367,642,797 as grants$3,878,658 earned by the program98% of program spendingChild hunger initiatives - approximately 60% of children in the houston area rely on free and reduced lunch during the school year. Proper nutrition is vital to the growth and development of children. Children without proper nutrition have difficulties concentrating in school, experience tardiness, and are more prone to chronic illness that can hinder their growth and advancement. The Houston Food Bank operates five programs that equip children and their families with tools they need to be successful: backpack buddy, kids cafe, school market, teachers aid, and nutrition education. Last year, 11.0 million meals were provided to children through one of hfbs child hunger-relief programs.
$2,941,457 spentof which $73,871 as grants1% of program spendingCommunity assistance program - houston food bank's community assistance program (cap), educates the community about available social services and state-funded programs. Through certified community resource navigators, cap provides application and technical assistance for the following benefits: snap (supplemental nutrition assistance program), medicaid, tanf (temporary assistance for needy families), and chip (children's health insurance program). The Houston Food Bank can assist in submitting those applications electronically to the state. Cap also offers the referral partner program to assist with additional resources outside of state benefits, including rent and utility assistance, and connections to local pantries and food distributions. Services are available in english, spanish, and vietnamese. In fy24 14,240,908 meals were accessed through cap assistance. Nutrition education - The Houston Food Bank offers free nutrition education programming in english and spanish to address food insecurity, to promote good nutrition habits for better health, and to reduce risk of diseases such as diabetes. Classes in nutrition, food safety, meal preparation, and budgeting are taught in…
$2,810,880 spent1% of program spendingOther program services: food for change is an innovative strategy that goes beyond emergency food assistance to address the root causes of hunger. This program uses food as a catalyst, in partnership with social service programs that provide workforce programs, higher education institutions, and health partners, to help individuals improve their quality of life through economic, higher ed, and health-related programs that encourage family financial stability or help participants manage their healthcare needs. The food bank's role is to provide food resources to support neighbors participating in the various economic, higher education, and health opportunity programming. This support comes in the form of food scholarships or food prescriptions (food rx). Estimated annual value of food scholarships/food rx clients: $2,210/yr with 30 lbs of produce provided bi-weekly and other nutritious food. In addition, neighbors are connected to nutrition education and our community assistance program (cap)to assist them with state service application assistance. Teachers aid: many children can't afford the most basic school supplies. Without the proper tools to do the work children are…
$1,752,106 spentof which $328,310 as grants0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $402,632,398.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2019 to 2020, from $97M to $139M (+43%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 4% · 2018 3% · 2019 7% · 2020 12% · 2021 11% · 2022 40% · 2023 19% · 2024 25% · 2025 20%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Brian Greene
President/CEO
Board chair
Michael Harris
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018, and between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 316 funders to 237 funders, grant income rose $14M → $20M.
57 of 950 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $3.3M from 38 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest United Way of Greater Houston); $3k from one payer (the payer's own filing calls it a related party, largest The Halperin Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money The Houston Food Bank raised.
From the IRS filings of The Houston Food Bank’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 950 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
The Houston Food Bank has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
73% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund The Houston Food Bank.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 20% · 2018 56% · 2019 36% · 2020 14% · 2021 17% · 2022 24% · 2023 22% — broadly stable.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
27% of The Houston Food Bank's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
66% of The Houston Food Bank's grant income comes from Texas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $43M arriving through sponsors registered in 27 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Government funding The Houston Food Bank receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.9M on record.
- Department of Health and Human Services$1.1M
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$850k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like The Houston Food Bank
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Texas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
94% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Houston Food Bank Endowment Inc · exempt
- Mary Barden Keegan Food Fund Inc · exempt
- Hfb Qalicb · partnership
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Houston Food Bank: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds The Houston Food Bank?
- The Houston Food Bank (Texas) receives grants from 950 organizations whose IRS filings report $170,339,876 to it, the largest being FEEDING TEXAS ($39,216,847). 403 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Houston Food Bank have?
- IRS filings report 950 organizations giving $170,339,876 in grants to The Houston Food Bank, 403 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Houston Food Bank?
- FEEDING TEXAS is the largest funder on record, with $39,216,847 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Houston Food Bank find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 950 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing