The Global FoodBanking Network reports that member food banks served approximately two billion meals to 40.5 million people facing hunger in 2025. Its Spotlight report describes the results of a defined member network, not every food bank worldwide. GFN Spotlight 2025
The reported dataset covers 55 member food-banking organizations in 47 countries. It excludes partner organizations Feeding America and the European Federation of Food Banks, as well as some members that do not submit data. Those exclusions are essential to understanding the scope of the totals.
GFN also reports that members prevented approximately 534 million kilograms of food from going to waste during 2025. It describes increased sourcing from agriculture and says virtual food banking accounted for 8% of total distribution. These are organization-reported measures of network activity, with definitions separate from the headline meals and people-served figures.
Meals distributed, people served and food recovered measure different things. They should not be used interchangeably or extrapolated to the whole global food-banking sector. The report supports a dated account of the network’s work while leaving room to examine the underlying collection methods and exclusions. Spotlight context
Archive note: the earlier 450-million-meal characterization did not match the published report’s defined member-network results.