Note from young food donor
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Eulogy from 10/11 Funeral Mass

Good afternoon, my name is Terry Shannon and I have the good fortune of being the current Executive Director at St Mary’s/Westside Food Bank Alliance

Last Wednesday morning after receiving word of John’s passing, we pulled our employees at the food bank on 31st Avenue together in our Break Away Café for an opportunity to reflect for a moment on the loss of a wonderful individual, a friend, a colleague, and a visionary. A number of our employees have had the chance to work with John for more than 15 years, many of you here today have had the opportunity to have worked with him from the very early days of food banking and some of us have only had the chance to spend a couple of years with him. No matter the amount of time you had with him you can’t help but reflect on the impact his vision has had on us as individuals and the countless millions of people his vision has helped around the world.

He took a very simple concept, rescuing food that was about to be thrown out or left in a field after the harvest and then somehow find a way to get to those in need.

Over the years, many of us may have had the opportunity to meet an individual who has had major impact on your local community, the state you live in, maybe even our country or the world. I would contend that each of us here today have had such an opportunity by our association with John van Hengel. John is a man who took a simple idea that has truly changed the world. While he often said that he had no idea that food banking would grow to the scale it is today…..he also never doubted the generosity of the community to meet the growing needs of those we serve.

Even though it was physically difficult for him to participate in food bank activities the last couple of months…..he always wanted to be involved with what was going on locally. I had received a call from him soon after Hurricane Katrina had hit the gulf coast asking what we were doing to help the folks in the region. I explained our role through A2H and the food we were sending into the impacted areas and working with the local relief effort at the Coliseum by delivering food, beverages and enlisting students from our Community Kitchen program to assist in meal preparation. He knew how important expedited disaster relief is in these kinds of situations and just wanted to make sure we were engaged in the relief effort.
From the first time I told John about the merger conversations with Westside he was incredibly supportive. Prior to the merger, he insisted on attending a Westside Food Bank all staff meeting in Surprise to show his support for the merger and made arrangements with Pat to drive him to Surprise. Pat Snyder always had time for John and was always thereto help get him to food bank functions and attend to his housing and healthcare needs.

On August 29th John joined us as we assembled all of the employees and many volunteers from St Mary’s and Westside Food banks to celebrate the merger of the two food banks. We knew then he was hurting pretty bad and it was a real struggle for him to attend the celebration, but that was not going to stop him from being there….He could not have been more thrilled with the merger because he knew it would enable the new food bank to deliver more food to more people. As recent as 2 weeks ago I received a phone call from John asking how the merger integration was going and wanting details on our progress.

To John’s sons ….Kip and Tom……thank you for sharing your father with us and allowing him the opportunity and freedom to help make the world a better place. Hopefully you have seen through the stories told yesterday, today and over the years the wonderful legacy your father has left all of us. As caretakers of his legacy rest assured we will not let him down as we work to eliminate hunger in our communities around the world.

And finally……Thanks John for showing us how to take care of our neighbors….. we will try our best to continue to carry your message forward.
Even though John is not physically with us anymore, we all believe we can continue to rely on his support. I am absolutely sure of this because whether you realize it our not he has already helped make a difference ……you may be aware that John was an avid Green Bay Packers fan and you may or may not be aware that the Packers started the season off this year with four straight losses. Apparently ……John intervened very quickly upon his arrival in heaven because on Sunday the Packers beat the New Orleans Saints 52 to 3. Many thought it would take divine intervention to turn the Packers season around for Packer fans. If he can do that for the Packers imagine what he can do for the hungry across the world…. rest assured John is still on the job.

John van Hengel Funeral Arrangements

Monday, October 10th St.Mary’s Basilica 400 E Monroe
6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Visitation/Wake
7:00 – 8:00 p.m. Rosary Services

Tuesday October 11th St. Mary’s Basilica 400 E. Monroe St
1:30 – 3:00 p.m. Funeral Mass

St. Mary’s/Westside Food Bank - 2831 N. 31st Avenue
3:30 – 5:00 p.m. Memorial Reception

Memories from Pat Snyder Director of HR

When I started my job at St. Mary's Food Bank in June 2000, I was assigned an office next to John van Hengel. We quickly hit it off and became friends after I asked him to educate me about food banking. Each day, I would find a spare 30 minutes to sit with John while he filled my head full of food banking history and humor. What better person to educate me about food banking than John van Hengel, founder of the world's first food bank. John had a great sense of humor and loved a good practical joke. In fact, the sign on his door reads, "Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused." I remember during my first year, John received one of those obnoxious singing and dancing fish. Billy Bass was the name, I believe. Well, John got a huge kick out of playing his musical fish for anyone and everybody who entered his office. Of course, being John's neighbor, I got the pleasure of hearing this fish sing more than enough times every day. In time, John's singing fish became our little joke. Every morning at the start of the workday, I would ask John to play his singing and dancing fish. I told John that this was what got my motor running in the morning since I had given up coffee. John played his fish so often that it finally broke. I searched far and wide to find another Billy Bass singing fish for John and presented it to him for Christmas in 2002. Both singing fish are proudly displayed in John's office to this day.

When John couldn't drive any longer, we used to carpool to work three or four days a week. My daughter, Katie, and I would pick up John and then hurry off to her St. Thomas School, usually just before the last bell rang. John and I would then head for the food bank for a full day of work. When it was time to go home and John was not in his office, I could always find him "raiding the refrigerator" looking for leftover food to make his dinner that night. From his early days in food banking, John took a vow of poverty, so he learned to eat what was available, and he never saw an expiration date that bothered him. I always kidded with John that he could eat almost anything and that he had the stomach of a junkyard dog.

John is known by many names, Founder of the World's First Food Bank, the Father of Food Banking and the Mother Teresa of Celery, but I only know him as my friend, and I will miss him greatly. The world, too, has lost one of the best friends it has ever known.

Pat Snyder
Director of Human Resources
St Mary's/Westside Food Bank Alliance

Memories from Sandy Gold Director of Community Relations

The Benevolent “Fonder”

I came to St. Mary’s Food Bank in 1996. My motivation – a better job. It was a better position, but I immediately enjoyed the spirit and camaraderie of those who worked here and the wonderful opportunity to use my abilities to further the mission of the Food Bank. What I didn’t know at the time was how much my own life would be influenced by an older gentleman down the hall.

Part of new employee orientation was a visit to Mr. van Hengel. I learned he founded the Food Bank, I knew his name was Dutch, and he had handed me photocopied pages of the phone book.

During my first week, he sidled up to me while I was giving a tour of the Food Bank. “Schimmel, huh? Do you know what Verschimmelt means?” he asked. I wondered how a very Catholic Dutch guy who used to be a Beverly Hills advertising executive knew the Yiddish word for moldy. “Yes, I answered, “but how do you know?” “Well, you can’t be in the Food Bank business for long without knowing what Verschimmelt means.” We connected on the spot. John enlisted me in his mission and gave me my own piece of his story.

I had no idea who John was in the world of food rescue organizations. I thought he was a pain in the neck [bear with me]. A stop in John’s office lasted forever. I’d advise new employees to visit the restroom prior to visiting John. He was exasperating.

John was a salesman and he was always closing a sale. He was absolutely adamant about getting more food… he’d photocopy pages out of the phone book: food manufacturers, candy, ice, coffee… and ask everyone to start making calls. John thought we didn’t need money, just more food. He’d call me whenever he had a new idea. Mind you, John did not “work” here – he was a consultant. A phone call from John meant more work – and usually elicited a groan.

But then again, John was also a fabulous story-teller… and the subject of many hilarious stories himself. When I told him his white vinyl shoes [rescued from a donation bin] looked awful, he found a can of flat white paint, and sprayed his shoes – while on his feet – right on the floor of the warehouse. For months, an outline of John’s footprints served as a humorous reminder. John was frugal – and self-deprecating he ate food that would have been thrown away, and various members of the staff volunteered to cut John’s hair. He made me laugh and taught me to value things.

What an incredible spirit - he took a vow of poverty. He had a medal from the Pope. And, he spent the weekends [after church] at the track, he smoked, he drank, he gambled. He gave his winnings to the Food Bank. He had an unwavering devotion to the less fortunate, the poor, and the hungry. He made me believe I could make a difference.

I planned John’s 75th Birthday party here at St. Mary’s Food Bank. John did not want any attention for himself, but people came to celebrate his milestone. There were plenty of women, John’s contemporaries, who still had a crush on him. They giggled and swooned like school girls – telling me how good-looking John had been. John probably had many opportunities for “romance,” but his real love was his mission. He sacrificed the kind of lifestyle many of us take for granted to focus on his mission. His influence has made me a better person.

John didn’t want anything for himself, but he sure was disappointed when he didn’t win the World Food Prize. We nominated him, but he wanted to write a letter to “that guy that won.” I think there was a small part of him that still had an ego – and enjoyed his special status just a little bit.

Like any job, I would get caught up in day-to-day stress, frustrations, etc. Whenever I lost sight, I’d visit John’s office and within moments, John would find a way to remind me of the mission of the Food Bank – and how everything I did helped people in need. He made it real for me. How I admired him.

Over the years, I’ve written articles about John. I’ve memorized his story. What I’ve taken away from my experience is that a person with as much persistence [but not necessarily patience] as John had could actually change the world. We joked about his role as “Founder” – but, as he had a nickname for me [not for publication]… I called him our Benevolent Fonder.

I count myself as lucky to have known him all these years. I drove John home many times after he was unable to drive himself. We almost always stopped for ice cream. He had coupons – and he shared.

Sandy Gold
Director Of community Relations
St Mary's/Westside Food Bank Alliance

Message from Argentina

Ever since I was young, I loved mathematics, and after graduating from college, I worked for several years in the insurance industry, first in the United States, and then in Buenos Aires, Argentina. While working in Argentina, I was often pained by the social inequalities, and the sight of families feeding their children out of the garbage, waiting outside of restaurants when they closed. At some point, upon seeing this sight about 5 years ago, I thought of the model of food banking that I had heard about while living in the United States, and decided to try and start a food bank here in Buenos Aires.

I started researching on the internet, and calling people involved with food banking to learn more about it, and one of the first things that someone told me was “you need to call John Van Hengel”. When I talked to him, he was extremely warm, and shared numerous stories about how food banking got started, and what I needed to do to get it going in Argentina. He was often concerned about me, personally. He always wanted to call me so that I wouldn’t spend my money, and he always had encouraging words to keep me going. He taught me an important lesson… persistence and passion are often more important one’s intelligence and skill.

As I worked with John over the years, and got to know him personally, and learned more about his own history, I was time and again struck by his profound compassion for the poor, his personal integrity in taking on even the most menial jobs at the food bank, and his living a life of poverty in order to share the plight of those he was helping. When I think back to how the food bank got started… he started talking with a woman with ten children, who was asking for money outside of a library, and he asked her “how do you feed your children?” John wasn’t content with giving her a quarter or a dollar and walking on. He was genuinely concerned about her. He stopped to talk with her, found out that she had 10 children, and then asked her “how do you feed them?”. And out of this act of love for this woman, who was probably ignored by many druing her life, food banking was born. She said “come and see”, and took him to the dumpster behind a supermarket where there was good food that she used to feed her children. Food banking was born out of compassion and love for those in need, and so it continues today in the 50 states, in Europe, in South America, in Japan, in Brazil, in Africa. John’s example and legacy challenge us to continue his work, and to never pass by any human suffering with indifference.

In my work in Argentina, a food bank was eventually started in Buenos Aires, and when I was going to leave food banking behind, John challenged me to keep working, and offered me a grant in order to dedicate myself full-time to setting up new food banks. Thanks greatly to John’s support, there are now twelve food banks up and running in Argentina, and we have worked together to improve existing operations in Paraguay, South Africa, and to start up operations in Chile. In Argentina, the food banks that are up and running currently distribute almost 9 million pounds of food per year that reaches 120,000 people in need. In the name of these people, I thank you John.

John was down to earth, kind, had a great sense of humor, and in the midst of his physical suffering, always had a smile for you. He was my inspiration both professionally and personally, and I miss him already.

Steve Camilli, Argentina

Family Friend remembers John

My final visited John van Hengel took place in the Hospice shortly after his death. During the last three years, as John's health deteriorated, I had called on him once or twice a week. Alone with him now in his hospital room, my memory traveled back over the past thirty years. I thought of the joy, the support, the entertaining stories John had brought to our family dinners, how the children had looked forward to the Friday night meals with John.

John teased the gang and in time was teased by them. One birthday they served John a cake consisting of a cake pan turned upside down and frosted. Another birthday present was an old brief case filled with cement. On one Friday night football game (St Mary's Knights) John discovered that chocolate cigarettes had been substituted for the real thing in his cigarette package.

While John will be remembered for his achievements, our family will never forget his humanity.

Bill Sullivan
Family Friend

Message from Portland

I remember hearing about John when I was maybe 3 to 6 months into my new job as the Interagency Food Bank Coordinator in Portland, Oregon in 1976. The Food Bank was a project of the Tri-County Community Council and had been in operation for 9 months when I took over. In addition to me, there was a full time driver and a Mennonite Volunteer Coordinator. We had a hole in the wall office and a half ton pickup truck that the Red Cross paid expenses on for at least a year after I got there.

We picked up food from grocery stores, farmers, bakeries and delivered them directly to member agencies since we didn't have a warehouse for a few years.

I remembered being very excited about this man, John Van Hengel, in Phoenix who was doing the same thing that I was. I wrote to him and then talked to him on the phone. He told me about a foodbank in Los Angeles and a few other places - that really was great news to me. I asked him some foodbanking questions that were challenges at the time and asked about a newsletter connecting the foodbanks to share more information. He helped me with my questions and a newsletter came out soon after.

John was an easy going, soft-spoken gentlemen who had an ability to inspire people around him. He always had a ready smile and he genuinely cared about people. He had a lot of faith that money would come to do the foodbanking work that needed to be done in the country. And of course, with a lot of hard work on the part of many people, it did.

The world owes a debt of gratitude to John and his vision. He'll always be a part of foodbanking, wherever he is.

June Tanoue
Child Hunger Programs Team Leader
America's Second Harvest - The Nation's Food Bank Network

Message from Phoenix

Our family prayers are with John van Hengel's family at the St. Mary's/ Westside Food Bank Alliance and with everyone else he touched in his life of community service. His life's work is a inspiration. May we continue his legacy.

Peter Nelson
Coordinate IT For Stronger Communities

Message from Memphis

Terry, my contribution on your web site is in memory of John Van Hengel, our founder and visionary. I will miss seeing him at national meetings and seeing his stamina to attend and keep going to contribute on behalf of hungry people.

Susan Sanford
Executive Director
Memphis Food Bank

Message from North Carolina

My heartfelt sympathy goes out to John's family and friends and his "Food Bank Family" in Phoenix and throughout the network. I will attach an e-mail that I sent to our board and staff about John's passing.

I plan to be at the service and hope to fly in on Monday and stay until Wednesday. I am a Founding Executive Director and have known John for 23 years. And it pleases me so that his memorial service will be held on October 11th, the day we opened our doors to feed the hungry in 18 counties of northwest North Carolina. It is very fitting that it be on the day that one of "his babies was birthed".

I would make it a point to always visit with John at national conferences and several years have sat with him at dinner. I have a picture on my desk of the last time we had dinner together which was in LA and I will always treasure that picture. John was always interested in North Carolina because he came here in 1981 when the Food Banks were beginning to open and we have a picture of him at the meeting. That was before my time but I have a video from CBS News that I will bring you a copy if you do not have one....of John explaining why he did what he did! (we plan to play the video at the reception at the food bank on 10/12) That video is the first I ever heard of food banking and look how it has impacted my life and the lives of many others.

Bless all of you at St. Mary's Food Bank who especially carry on John's mission and vision everyday of feeding the hungry!

Nan's email to her Board of Directors
Death of John Van Hengel, Father of Food Banking and America's Second Harvest

I cannot tell you how much this saddens me and I have had John in my thoughts and prayers knowing how ill he was with his Parkinson disease. I so enjoyed my time with him and will treasure every moment. It is the passing of a special time in food banking when one loses their founder. He founded the first food bank in Phoenix over 30 years ago and then founded America's Second Harvest ...25 years this year. It is a significant milestone that he died the 25th year!

I first heard of food banks on the CBS Sunday Morning Show with Charles Kuralt in 1981 and many of you have seen that tape that John was on in of course his younger days. John believed that hunger would not be solved conversationally but with action and he had a saying:

The poor would say to us:

You had a meeting and I was not invited
You had a discussion group and I was not invited
I came anyway and enjoyed the coffee and doughnuts.

Also, he would say the scriptures say that " The Poor Will Always be With Us" and he would add "But Why the Hungry?"

I often asked John about his vision and he would say, "Nan, I really did not have a vision, I just wanted to feed the hungry!" He never expected it to be a nation wide network and now it is international and our own Bob Forney hopes to be working in that field when he leaves as CEO and President of America's Second Harvest in June 2006. I have a picture on my desk of the LA National Conference two years ago when Jenny and I had dinner with him and sat with him at many national conferences.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and that includes his "Food Bank Family" which is ourselves!

Nan Griswold
Executive Director
Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina

Food Bank story from Baltimore

John “oozed” charm, from the top of his white hair to the bottom of his white shoes. He was the kind of guy who you noticed when he walked in a room. The twinkle in his eye, the almost constant smile belied the fact that he was both a shrewd judge of character and how a specific person could help in his drive to make Second Harvest succeed. At the 1981 National Second Harvest Conference in Annapolis I remember the way he worked with certain “Cabinet wives”, Susan Baker and (darn, I forget, the wife of another cabinet member…… Brady? ) knowing full well that the Community Services Administration’s financial support would be reinforced and probably increased. Entrepreneurial, intelligent and driven, John was comfortable with VIP’s or just plain folks and all felt that he was focused directly on them.

My favorite memory is not specifically of John but of Ann Miller, founding ED of the Maryland Food Bank, in his presence. Ann, hard-bitten, strong-willed advocate and ex Army nurse would come unglued when John would call. She’d get silly & giggly in ways that we, her co-workers, couldn’t believe. He had charm.

Bill Ewing
Executive Director
Maryland Food Bank

Food Bank story from Indiana

Not everyone recognizes that there is a city named Anderson located in Indiana. John did. He remembers the first food bank in Indiana being in Anderson and always laughed when telling me about the load of Wrapples that early food bank took - a huge thing to do when distribution didn’t top a hundred thousand pounds a year ! When I stepped in as director in 1989, six years after the first food bank folded, there were still packages of Wrapples on the shelves!

Lois Rockhill
Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana

America's Second Harvest news release

CHICAGO, Oct. 5 /U.S. Newswire/ -- 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.

Message from Bob Forney, President America's Second Harvest

To all Network Executive Directors and National Office Staff:

I am saddened to share with you the news of the passing this morning of our organizational founder and mentor, John Van Hengel. I had the opportunity to be with John this morning with other members of the St. Mary’s/Westside family. As you all know, John was a true visionary who understood the power of synergy – that if food banks worked together as a network, miracles would happen. And indeed they did, time and time again. Our Network grew and flourished under his tutelage, and we remain forever in his debt for the ideas he gave to us.

His legacy lives on in the spirit of each of your operations. Millions of people that are reached each year can thank John for his insights, his leadership in making food banking what it is today. He will be truly missed.

Wake and funeral arrangements will be shared with you once they become available. Additionally, we are working with St. Mary’s/Westside and the NAC to create a memorial, and hope to share our plan with you soon.

Bob

Message from Yuma Community Food Bank

On behalf of the Yuma Community Food Bank Board of Directors, Staff and Volunteers we want you to know that are thoughts and prayers are with you and your Food Bank family. He was of course a legendary man for the Food Bank industry. He will be missed.

Ronna Sue Stubbs
President CEO
Yuma Community Food Bank

Message from Father Bill from Andre House

I want to share with you this message from Fr. Bill (the Director of Andre House)

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HI Sandra,

Thanks for your email. I am SO glad that I was able to see John and anoint him yesterday. I could tell that he was very close to dying, as his breath was very labored. But I talked to him and thanked him for all of his accomplishments and his concern for the less fortunate. I leaned close to his ear and said, "John, you helped to bring food to millions of people, and God blesses you and loves you for that. Soon you will sit down and the Lord will provide you with a rich banquet. Now go to the arms of your Loving Savior." Then I gave him the Last Rites and prayed the Lord's Prayer with him. Amazingly enough, I watched his lips try to give form to the prayer he prayed all his life. He definitely heard me!

It was an incredible blessing to have been there at that moment. Thank you so much for asking me to go. May God receive his soul into the Kingdom of Heaven!

Peace,
bill