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FOOD EMPOWERMENT PROJECT

EIN 26-1743952 SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Revenue 2024
$531,754
Expenses 2024
$699,841

Program services were 68.3% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

As filed

Subsection
03
NTEE code
K30
Classification
2100
Street
2261 MARKET ST

These codes are the IRS's own and are shown exactly as filed. What each one means is in the Business Master File documentation (opens in a new tab).

Mission and programs · 2024

Mission

Food Empowerment Project seeks to create a more just and sustainable world by recognizing the power of one's food choices.

  • VeganismWe began 2024 with our "Why Compassion?" project, a series of videos in which vegans of various ages and backgrounds share why compassion for animals is their principal motivation for going and staying vegan. We conducted our second-annual Youth ScholarshipContest, for creative youths aged 11 to 24 who have a passion for compassion to win $300 to $500 by using their writing or illustrating talent to advocate for ethical veganism and help create a kinder world. Fox 56 News did a segment on it.F. E. P. organized a free webinar, "Embodiment of Injustice: The Dairy Industry, which provided an eye-opening look at injustices that are embedded in the dairy industry. The event featured guest speakersincluding a dairy workerand videos, through which attendees gained a deeper understanding of their food choices and how they can stand up against the dairy industry. A post-event survey showed that people loved the webinar. One attendee wrote: An incredibly eye-opening and compassionate seminar, providing different but important perspectives about the dairy industry and its cultural impact on vulnerable communities. Other responses included: Motivating and validating, Revolutionary, and Very informative and full of resources that we can share with others. In fact, 100 percent of attendeeswho werent all vegansaid the seminar made them interested in learning more about veganism.We asked our California supporters to call out the greenwashing being carried out by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), one of the biggest utility companies in the state. PG&E wants its own customers to fund the cost overruns on construction of biodigesters in Merced County, a project that has exceeded its budget by more than $8 million. F. E. P. submitted comments to PG&E with the assistance of a climate scientist; we asked people to leave a public comment and inform the company that not only should these costs be covered by the developers and not community members, but this project will intensify the suffering of cows already exploited in the dairy industry.We launched our latest culinary website, VeganSoulFood.org, which targets a large audience with a wide range of recipes from throughout the African diaspora. It includes more than 25 vegan recipes celebrating rich flavors and showing people they dont have to sacrifice their favorite foods to go and stay vegan. F. E. P. was able to produce videos to attract appropriate vegan recipes. When launched the site has received more than 1,566 pageviews in two months, and notable media coverage.We put up an anti-dairy billboard near the University of California, Los Angeles, directing people to our website GotColonization.com, where they can learn about the industrys impact on animals, human health, workers, and the environment. Vegan Chinese Food was beautifully printed as a 48 full-color recipe guide.Eating Vegan in College page, created as ideal not only for vegan students who want to stay vegan, but for those who go vegan in college, as well as students who want to go vegan once they leave home for college but arent sure how. It helps them navigate everything from accessibility challenges to cooking in dorm rooms.We created a Vegan Holiday Recipes page that was promoted for both vegans and nonvegans to share. We also developed a Vegan Hacks page for vegans and the veg-curious, which explains how to transform whole-foods ingredients into meat and dairy alternatives.We created YouTube video ads highlighting two of our resources: the Vegan Mexican Food (VMF) and Vegan Filipino Food (VFF) websites and their accompanying recipes guides. These eye-catching ads got excellent engagement, with VMF receiving more than 30,000 views and 14,000 clicks to the website and VFF getting more than 2,000 views and 1,100 clicks. In other words, about half of the people who saw the ads demonstrated interest in them.Team members at F.E.P. did various speaking and tabling events in California, Kentucky, and North Carolina and England as well as various podcasts and interviews.We added more than 10 recipes to our main recipe page.We also created two new issue web pages:Climate Crisis resource, which serves as both an introduction to this subject and a call to action. It emphasizes why the impact of animal consumption needs to be part of the climate conversation and why going vegan is a step forward in the fight for climate justice.Focusing on the troubling popularity of commercial octopus farming. The Ethical and Environmental Impacts of Octopus Farming takes a deep dive into the reasons octopus farming is a terrible idea, especially concerns about animal cruelty. The page ends with recommendations that people can take to help stop this trend.Our views for our main site, FoodIsPower.org, for 2024 was 2,924,535, our GotColonization.com website received 61,368 views, and all of our vegan cultural food sites combined received 347,271.We mailed 600 pieces of our anti-dairy booklet and around 750 of our cultural recipe guides.

    Expenses $303,079

  • Farm Worker RightsWe worked on various pieces of legislation regarding housing and education for farm workers and their children.We conducted our annual school supply drive and donated more than 200 backpacks to the children of farm workers living along the Central Coast of California. These farm workers primarily pick strawberries. We also connected with Jos Moreno Hernndez, a former farm worker who is now an engineer and a retired NASA astronaut, who kindly sent in an encouraging quote to be included in each backpack

    Expenses $91,879

  • Access to Healthy FoodWe continued to expose the Safeway/Albertsons policy that impacts the health of communities.

    Expenses $55,964

  • Chocolate We continued to update our Chocolate List, to which 100 companies were added in 2024, and the app was downloaded 18,000 times.

    Expenses $27,110

As filed on the 2024 return. The filer continues this part on Schedule O, which is not shown here.

Officers and directors · 2024

As listed in Part VII of the 2024 return, in the order the filer printed them. Each return names its own; this is not a roster the organization keeps with us.

  • Lauren Ornelas

    Senior Prog Dir

    Total calculated
    $107,829
    From this org
    $104,346
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $3,483
    Hours/week
    40

  • Elise Ferguson

    President

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    5

  • Sharanya Krishna Prasad

    Secretary

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    2

  • Mara Muoz Contreras

    Treasurer

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    2

  • Jessian Choi

    Board Member

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    2

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. Earlier years are each on their own filing page.

Filings

  • 2024
    Revenue
    $531,754
    Expenses
    $699,841
    Contributions
    $538,509
    Grants paid
    $0
  • 2023
    Revenue
    $622,819
    Expenses
    $779,106
    Contributions
    $621,229
    Grants paid
    $0
  • 2022
    Revenue
    $663,736
    Expenses
    $722,980
    Contributions
    $662,598
    Grants paid
    $0

The four totals the IRS asks for on Part I of the Form 990, as filed. A dash means the figure was not present on the return — not that it was zero.

Other returns filed

  • 2021 · 990

    Revenue
    $1,003,357
    Expenses
    $661,872
    Assets (EOY)
    $1,386,290

  • 2020 · 990

    Revenue
    $584,828
    Expenses
    $342,557
    Assets (EOY)
    $819,975

  • 2019 · 990

    Revenue
    $398,048
    Expenses
    $273,808
    Assets (EOY)
    $576,625

  • 2017 · 990

    Revenue
    $286,296
    Expenses
    $160,535
    Assets (EOY)
    $302,351

  • 2016 · 990-EZ

    Revenue
    $144,371
    Expenses
    $101,524
    Assets (EOY)
    $180,533

  • 2015 · 990-EZ

    Revenue
    $91,543
    Expenses
    $64,633
    Assets (EOY)
    $134,222

Nonprofiteer parses Forms 990, 990-EZ and 990-PF, in a window of recent tax years. These returns are recorded from the IRS e-file index, so their figures were extracted by that index rather than read from the return here — treat them as a different source from the filings above, not as more of the same record. A dash means the index carries no figure; Form 990-T listings carry none at all.

Grants made

No itemized grants to organizations. Schedule I is filed only by organizations that granted more than $5,000 to a recipient, so most filers have none.

Grants received

The 10 largest by cash amount. The API serves every itemized grant.

Other IRS files

Auto-Revocation List

Not listed. The IRS publishes this list for organizations whose exemption was automatically revoked for failing to file for three consecutive years.

Publication 78

Listed as of 13 October 2026, under deductibility PC.

These are two separate IRS files on two separate schedules, shown as published and not reconciled with each other. Neither is a statement about whether a contribution is deductible today: 19,245 organizations appear in Publication 78 while the IRS's own revocation file lists them as currently revoked, more than half of those revoked before 2019. Absence from Publication 78 is evidence of nothing, and presence is not evidence either. Verify current status with the IRS before relying on it.

What this page reflects

The registration facts above come from the IRS Business Master File published 13 October 2026 and read 26 October 2026, for every organization at once. Returns through tax year 2024, the newest we have parsed for this organization.