That Crazy Food Bank Idea

That Crazy Food Bank Idea

By S. R. Morris

 

Now that I’m over 50, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’ll never be the first astronaut to land on Mars. With respect to other great things, like writing a best-selling novel or inventing a gadget that will change the world, I still have high hopes. In reality, for me and most people, the closest we ever get to greatness is to meet and shake the hand of someone who’s done something really great.

 

But I can’t complain. Among my lifelong friends was a man who, humble in many respects, accomplished something so great that it truly did change the world.

 

I first met John Van Hengel when I was 12 or 13 years old. I don’t remember how my parents met him, but John became a regular visitor to our home over the years. Often he spent Christmas and other holidays with us. My brother, two sisters, and I would always run inside and shout, “John’s here!” whenever we saw him drive up. We knew he always had some little thing to give us, and he was fun to be around. 

 

By the time I was 14, I had learned something about John’s work with the poor. I knew that he was trying to get surplus food from grocery stores to help underprivileged kids and needy families. Little did I know at that time (or anyone else) that what he was doing would soon change many people’s ideas about feeding the poor. In 1967, no one anticipated that John would establish the world’s first food bank, and that John’s idea would be multiplied in hundreds of locations throughout the world and help feed millions of people in many countries.

 

Because John was such an outgoing family friend, I looked up to him and wanted to help. When I heard that his newly established food clearinghouse was short of canned food, I took a grocery cart and began going door-to-door asking for donations of canned and package food. Shortly after the grocery cart incident, someone took a photo of me with John and it as used in a poster to promote the food bank idea.

 

When John read John 12, verse 26, “If any man serves me, let him follow me,” he was led to imitate the life of Christ. He started by volunteering at the local mission dining room. Then, he began asking local homeowners for permission to pick citrus fruit from their  tress, and delivered it to charity missions.

 

One day, John was talking to a couple of priest at his church about the needs of the poor. He suggested, “What we need is a clearinghouse for all the surplus food from various markets that just gets thrown away.”

 

“Go ahead and do it,” one of the priests replied, and before long John was offered the use of the old bakery building from which to operate.

 

Later that same year, he learned about a single mother who managed to feed her ten children by rescuing damaged groceries from the dumpsters behind a local market. She kept her children feed and healthy with a diet of “still edible” fruit, vegetables, bread and more. As a result, John was convinced that more food could be saved and utilized in that way.

 

Without wasting time, John contacted managers of local grocery stores. Before long, food was being collected directly from many supermarkets and deposited in the clearinghouse he established. Initially, broken packages or sugar and rice, dented cans of food (some without labels), and loose potatoes, carrots, and other vegetables were salvaged and recycled.

 

Soon also, poor families were able to from those deposits and use the “leftovers” to better feed their children. Someone began calling it a “food bank” and it stuck. Later, John decided to name the clearinghouse St. Mary’s Food Bank, after the church that helped him get it started.

 

During summer vacations, or whenever school wasn’t in session, I would volunteer to help at the small warehouse. I was always captivated by the wonderful stories John told; stories about surprising events that came about from simple, humble people and things. One of the most remarkable events happened back in the early days of the food bank. Although I was not there the day it happened, I heard about it afterwards. I cannot tell the story as well as John did back then, but I’ll do my best to relate the story as I first heard it.

 

John had watched the old, run-down vehicle stumble along Central Avenue in South Phoenix as it appeared to be stopping at the abandoned former bakery. He could barely believe he had waited all the day to meet the driver of this old jalopy, he thought. As the crumpled car halted in front of him, John reflected on the events that had brought him to the point.

 

Because the demands of Phoenix’ poor quickly outgrew the supply, the food bank still needed money to operate. Most of its operation had always been paid by donations, but now things were getting desperate. That’s the day John received a phone call and that’s why he had waited all day for the man who had called.

 

“I’d like to stop by and bring you a donation,” the man had said when he called. John had hoped that it might be $50 so he could keep the doors open a little longer, but the sight of the man’s arrival appeared to be a disappointment.

 

Although he tried not to show his disillusionment, John watched the old gentleman step out of his car. His clothes were threadbare, too. He wondered how the man could help when it appeared he needed financial assistance himself.

 

John invited the elderly man inside and gave him a tour of the small building with its bare floors, stark furnishings, and equipment in need of repair. After he explained how the food bank operated, he watched the old fellow draw a worn checkbook from a pocket of his shabby pants.

 

“That’s why I’m here and I’d like to help,” the humble man said as he began writing with a wrinkled, shaky hand. After he finished signing the check, he place it face down and pushed the check across the desk to where John was sitting.

 

Curiosity was gnawing at John’s mind. He knew it wouldn’t be polite to turn over the check and gawk at it, so he resisted the temptation. After their conversation had continued for several more minutes, the man stood and made his way to the door. Thanking him for his donation, John watched as the aged man drove off in his noisy old car. Then, he returned to the chair at his desk and unfolded and old man’s check.  It was for 10,000 dollars!

 

Was it possible that the meek, elderly gentleman who had just sat across from him was actually wealthy enough to give him a valid check for that amount of money? Or was he just an eccentric, feeble-minded man who went around writing bogus check for phenomenal amounts to everyone? “Oh, you need $10,000? Sure. I’ll just write you a check.” I guess there’s only one way to find out, John thought.

 

The bank was only one way to find out, John made it there in record time. Shyly, he asked the teller to determine whether the check was valid or not. She left the counter for a few minutes. When she returned, she pushed the check face down across the counter toward him. John stared at the backside of the check. “You need to sign it,” she said. Then, seeing the astonishment on John’s face, she added, “The check is good�"very good!”

 

“The Lord doesn’t always show His hand, but I knew He had that day,” John remarked years later about the eccentric man with the check. “I knew we not only could go on, we had to go on with this crazy food bank idea.”

 

In 1967, John Van Hengel established the world’s first food bank in an old bakery building in Phoenix, Arizona. That year, St. Mary’s Food Bank received and dispersed nearly a quarter million pounds of food. In 1971, John started America’s Second Harvest and, in 1983, he began promoting food banking to Europe and the world.

 

In 2002, John received the World Food Prize, recognizing his contribution to ending hunger in the world. In 2006, St. Mary’s Food Bank distributed more than 25 million pounds of food and that “crazy food bank idea” has been emulated by hundreds of churches and non-profit organization around the world.

 

In February, 2003, my family and I attended John’s 80^th birthday party, but we were not alone. Hundreds of friends that John acquired through the 35 years since starting the food bank, came to celebrate, too. In addition, city officials, as well as state and national representatives, observed a milestone with the man who made a difference in the live of millions of hungry people.

 

The words of a local television broadcaster, written for the occasion of his 80^th birthday, were true back then and even more so now. Speaking of John she said, “The fruits of his labor, and of his heart, are truly felt around the world. How blessed we are to call him our own.” John Van Hengel passed away quietly on October 5, 2005.