NAICS 62421Industry · 5-digitlocal market

Community food services

This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in the collection, preparation and delivery of food for the needy. Establishments in this industry may also distribute clothing and blankets to the poor. These establishments may prepare and deliver meals to persons who, by reason of age, disability or illness, are unable to prepare meals for themselves; collect and distribute donated food; or prepare and provide meals at fixed or mobile locations. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA: 514
Under 10 employeesA: 67%
Establishments · USA: 5,187
Employment · USA: 55,482
Payroll · USA: $2.2B

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–420239%

5–914127%

10–198416%

20–495811%

50–99214%

100–19971%

200–49910%

500+0—

Of 514 Canadian establishments with employees, 67% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators.

Where they areA

Ontario16432%

Quebec14027%

British Columbia6713%

Alberta459%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Health Care and Social Assistance, US · opened 2020

84%

1 year

65.3%

3 years

52.6%

5 years

36.4%

10 years

opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 624, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

local competitionlow capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 624 Social assistance

Mostly funded by public agreements at rates set by the funder. Childcare is the largest private segment, and fee-cap programmes now set its price too.

Who sets the price: Government funding agreements and fee caps.
The software it runs on: Childcare management, case management for social services.

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Screened one level up. Nothing is filed at this exact code; the screen for 6242 Community food and housing, and emergency and other relief services covers it.

Operating businessScreenedfiled at 6242

Food Bank, Shelter & Relief ServicesExecution decides

binding constraint: willingness to pay

Food banks, shelters and emergency relief are demand without a payer. The people served pay nothing, by definition, so every dollar of revenue is a grant, a government contract or a donation — and the organisations that do this work are charities because no other form fits. The pre-screen filed this as public; the more precise statement is that there is no customer, only funders, and a funder is not a market an entrant can price into. The counts show an industry of small local bodies with a few large ones: 1,348 Canadian establishments, 48% with fewer than ten employees and 46 employing a hundred or more [A]; the US has 16,002 establishments [A]. Rising demand does not change that: more need raises cost, not revenue. What is enterable sits beside the industry rather than inside it: logistics, software and fundraising services sold to these organisations, which the 8132 record screens from the software side and finds defended by an incumbent that monetises donation flow. Even there, the buyer's budget is whatever its donors gave last year.

NAICS 62426 vendors named8 sourced figuresOpen →

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

No vertical software market has been recorded along this branch. What the subsector typically runs on: Childcare management, case management for social services.

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

Who works here

The occupations employed in Health care and social assistance, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

Managers in health care One industry 98.6%

Nursing and allied health professionals One industry 95.1%

Technical occupations in dental health care One industry 89.9%

Therapy and assessment professionals One industry 89.5%

Dentists, optometrists and audiologists One industry 89%

Physicians and veterinarians One industry 88.5%

Assisting occupations in support of health services One industry 85.9%

Practitioners of natural healing One industry 83.4%

Technical occupations in therapy and assessment One industry 77.9%

Home care provider occupations One industry 72.1%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Office administrative assistants - general, legal and medical Across the economy 22.1%

Administrative, property and payroll officers Across the economy 18.6%

Shoe repairers, shoemakers and upholsterers Across the economy 12.6%

Survey, statistical and data entry occupations Across the economy 9.3%

Administrative and financial supervisors Across the economy 7.1%

Building maintenance installers, servicers and repairers Across the economy 6.7%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 5.7%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 4.8%

Technical occupations in computer and information systems Across the economy 4.6%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 4.5%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →

Inside this industry

1 row sits directly beneath 62421. Each has a base report of its own.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
624210	Community food services	514	screened at 6242

Alongside it, under 6242 Community food and housing, and emergency and other relief services

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
62422	Community housing services	538	screened at 6242
62423	Emergency and other relief services	296	screened at 6242