John van Hengel

John Arnold van Hengel (February 21, 1923 – October 5, 2005) is credited as being the “Father of Food Banking.” In 1967 van Hengel, a grass roots activist and entrepreneur, founded the world’s first food bank in Phoenix, Arizona. He continued to spread the food banking concept across the United States and eventually the world.

John van Hengel was born in Waupun, Wisconsin. Of Dutch ancestry he was the son of a nurse and the town pharmacist. He graduated from Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin with a degree in Government. John then attended graduate school at University of Wisconsin but moved to Southern California before finishing. Spending time as a self described “first rate beach bum”, van Hengel moved on to study broadcasting at UCLA. Odd jobs included driving a beer truck in Beverly Hills, designing plastic rain wear, a sales manager for Bear Archery and a magazine publicist. John married a model and had two sons. In 1960 his marriage ended in divorce and he headed back to Wisconsin and went to work in a rock quarry. He became partially paralyzed while breaking up a bar fight. He was sent to Arizona for rehabilitation through the guidance of Barrows Neurological Institute.

John regained his strength swimming laps in a YMCA swimming pool and at the age of 44 became the oldest public lifeguard in Phoenix, Arizona.

John took a vow of poverty upon starting his life in Phoenix. A devout Roman Catholic, John began working at Immaculate Heart Church in Phoenix where he drove the bus and coached sports. He also began volunteering at the very busy St. Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen. John bought an old milk delivery truck for $150 and used it to gather gleaned citrus fruit and other foods to bring to the soup kitchen. Every evening John would deliver any surplus to the homeless missions in downtown Phoenix. Searching for an efficient, less time consuming method of distributing this food, John approached Father Ronald Colloty from St. Mary’s Basilica in regards to setting up a warehouse where the missions could come and pick up the food. The church responded by loaning John $3000 and an inherited bakery building near skid row. John expanded his food resources upon a discovery behind local grocery stores. A destitute mother of 10 well fed children pointed out “a bank of food” from which she fed her family. Huge amounts of surplus food being thrown out by grocery stores. Food that was frozen but still edible, loose vegetables, stale bread. Inside stores John found less perishable throwaways such as dented cans and leaky bags of rice and sugar. Within a year John had established the location at which all the food that grocery stores could not sell would be housed and distributed. He named it St. Mary’s Food Bank in honor of the donation provided by St. Mary’s Basilica and the descriptive words of a resourceful mother. In accordance to his vow of poverty, John took no salary during his first decade at St. Mary’s. He wore secondhand clothes, got his food at the food bank and lived in a donated room above a garage.

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