America's Second Harvest Mourns Founder John van Hengel
Nation's Food Bank Network Annually Feeds 23 Million Americans at Risk of Hunger
CHICAGO --- October 5, 2005 --- America’s Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network mourns the passing of its founder, John van Hengel, who died today. Known as the father of food banking, Van Hengel revolutionized hunger-relief by establishing the world’s first food bank. The Network has distributed nearly 20 billion pounds of food and grocery product in 25 years of operation.
“We have lost a true American hero today,” said Robert Forney, President and CEO of America’s Second Harvest. “John van Hengel devoted many years of his life to finding innovative ways to help feed the hungry. His contributions and achievements cannot be overstated. He created food banks because he realized that millions of pounds of nutritious food were being wasted at the same time that millions of Americans were going hungry.”
Van Hengel worked tirelessly to build a bridge between those who had an abundance of food – farmers and the food industry – and people who were hungry, or unable to afford adequate nutrition.
Inspiration came after van Hengel spoke with a woman at a soup kitchen where he volunteered. She told him she often fed her children with food she had collected from grocery store garbage bins. He asked her about the quality of the food. She replied that it was fine, but that there should be a place where, instead of being thrown out and wasted, this food could be stored and then accessed when people needed it, similar to the way banks “store” money for future use.
He began soliciting donations from local grocery stores. He recruited volunteers to gather these donations, as well as fruit left unpicked on suburban backyard trees and vegetables that remained in local fields after harvesting. This “second harvest” provided food to various local charities and social service agencies for distribution to hungry people.
The success of his efforts led to the creation of St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix, where van Hengel and a small staff gathered and distributed more than 250,000 pounds of food to 36 local churches and social service agencies in their first year of operation. Today, the Food Bank he started is called St. Mary’s/Westside Food Bank Alliance and distributes more than 60 million pounds of food to 900 agency sites all over Arizona.
A national organization, known today as America's Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network, was established by van Hengel in 1976. It has grown to include more than 200 food banks and has provided donated food and grocery items to more than 50,000 agencies that annually feed 23 million Americans, including nine million children and three million seniors.
John van Hengel traveled the world and taught other countries how to set up food banks now in operation throughout Europe and in many other countries, including Israel, Australia and Mexico.
"It's amazing how many people are being fed because of this crazy little thing we started. We're feeding millions and it is not costing anyone anything,” van Hengel said in 1992. “But it scares me to look back because I just had no idea it would grow into this."
John van Hengel died at the age of 83.
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Contact:
Ross Fraser
Office: (312) 263-2303,
x127
Cell: (312) 307-8470
