Posted by Food banks are a blessing to hungry people around this country and around the world. But did you ever wonder how they got started? Well, a Christopher Award-winning children’s book has the answer. Written by Jeff Gottesfeld and illustrated by Michelle Laurentia Agatha, “Food For Hope” tells the story of John van Hengel, the Catholic man who created food banks inspired by his faith and the hardships of his life. Gottesfeld joined me recently on “Christopher Closeup” (podcast below) to share van Hengel’s story, as well as his own background as an observant Jewish man who greatly respects Catholicism.
Through the synagogue their family attends, as well as her school, Gottesfeld’s stepdaughter was volunteering at the North Hollywood Interfaith Food Pantry. She came home one day and asked, “Where did food pantries come from?” Jeff didn’t know, so he started doing some research, assuming they had been created by a government program. Instead, he came across the riches-to-rags story of John van Hengel.
During the first few decades of van Hengel’s life, there were no indications he would ever go hungry. He grew up in Wisconsin during the Great Depression, but his family never lacked food. He attended college and grad school, became president of his fraternity, moved to California, married a model, had two children, and thrived as a salesman for a sportswear company.
Then, it all fell apart. Van Hengel lost his job, got divorced, and lost custody of his children. He returned home to Wisconsin and found work in a rock quarry. But while breaking up a fight, he endured a spinal injury, which required surgery. Still, he was in pain and needed rehabilitation, so on his doctor’s advice, he moved to Arizona, where the warmer weather might help his recovery.
That’s how van Hengel, now destitute, wound up in Phoenix in 1967 at a St. Vincent de Paul-run soup kitchen at St. Mary’s Catholic Church. In “Food for Hope,” Gottesfeld writes, “John liked people. He talked with everyone in the dining room — disabled veterans, the homeless, and kids whose parents had to choose between rent and food. Their stories opened his heart. He found work at the kitchen, shelter in a cheap room above a garage, and faith in prayer with Father Ronald at St. Mary’s Church.”
The menu at the soup kitchen was minimal (soup, rice, beans, powdered milk), so van Hengel took the initiative to ask a local citrus orchard if he could collect the grapefruits that had fallen off their trees and would otherwise be thrown away. They agreed, and fresh fruit made its way onto the menu.
Then came the incident that changed everything. Gottesfeld said, “On one of his runs, a woman grabbed van Hengel…and told him, ‘I’ve got 10 kids, and they eat like kings. I’m not paying anything for it.’ And van Hengel’s like, ‘Right, sure.’ The woman grabbed him by the arm, took him to a supermarket dumpster, and pointed inside. The dumpster was full of discarded food that was completely edible. The woman said, ‘I just wish I could put the stuff in a bank.'”
Van Hengel got excited at this idea, so he went back to St. Mary’s and told Father Ronald, a Franciscan priest, that they should start a bank to store food. Father Ronald agreed and told van Hengel, “Do it.”
Van Hengel protested that he already worked at the soup kitchen and didn’t have time. But Father Ronald responded, “You heard the call, John. Decide if you want to listen.”
He listened.
Gottesfeld said, “St. Mary’s Church gave him an abandoned bakery on Skid Row in Phoenix, and he started there…I had the opportunity to speak at St. Mary’s back in the spring, soon after the book came out. I met a number of people who knew van Hengel, and, of course, they’re proud as can be. And this little food bank that he started in the abandoned bakery, I think they did 125,000 pounds of food their first year…This past year, the St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix did 125 million. So think about that…They have a couple of hundred full-time employees, and they’re putting produce through, and they’re helping people get job training.”
Above his desk, van Hengel wrote a Biblical quote, but gave it his own twist: “The poor we shall always have with us, but why the hungry?”
Motivated by his faith, van Hengel kept growing the food bank idea and eventually turned it into the nonprofit America’s Second Harvest, which helped create food banks around the country. He also chose to live in relative poverty because he looked back on his life and realized that money had not made him happy.
Gottesfeld was thrilled to share this story of a Catholic hero whose name he believes should be better known for all he accomplished in making this world a better place. And as a person of faith himself, albeit a different faith, Gottesfeld relishes the spiritual motivations in van Hengel’s life.
Gottesfeld said, “Not only am I Jewish, I’m pretty observant. I go to synagogue on Saturdays. I read Hebrew, I study Torah. We have mezuzahs on all the doors in our house. But I’m interested in religion, and my respect for the Roman Catholic Church is enormous. I’ve tracked the changes in the church carefully since Vatican II. I know a great deal about the life and papacy of John Paul II, whose childhood best friend was Jewish and became his lifelong best friend. There’s a children’s book to be written about that too, at some point. And I love Catholic education. I went to a Jesuit law school. Our younger girl, A.G., she went to Notre Dame High School here in L.A. and spent some time at Loyola Chicago…And Jewish sacred texts are Christian sacred texts….It’s studied, the way it was written. My friends who went to seminary, they studied Hebrew. There’s more and more recognition of that, and it’s a great thing.”
Gottesfeld hopes that children and families read “Food for Hope,” and find that it motivates them to make a difference. He concluded, “Number one, don’t take food for granted. It is not automatic for big segments of our society. Number two, eat everything on your plate, and shop wisely. Three, volunteer, whether it’s for food or something else. Try to pick an endeavor or a charity. What’s great about food, it’s completely nonpartisan. This has nothing to do with partisan politics. All it has to do is with feeding people. And there are plenty of things like that out there that are nonpartisan. Get in there, do the work. Know that you’re working alongside other Americans doing the same thing…What matters is your energy and your goodness.”
(To listen to my full interview with Jeff Gottesfeld, click on the podcast link):
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