"Founder's Day" February 21, 2007

John van Hengel, who passed away in October 2005, was the “Founder” of St. Mary’s Food Bank, the world’s first food bank and helped start food banks all over the world. He is the recognized founder of America’s Second Harvest, a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks, and founder of the Global Food Banking Network. John took the simple concept of rescuing food that was no longer salable yet consumable and storing it in a central location to make it available to those in need. With that concept, John changed the world!

In celebration and honor of John’s birthday, February 21st, St. Mary’s/Westside Food Bank Alliance will be introducing our inaugural “Founder’s Day”.

In keeping with the simple beginnings of food banking so successfully started by John, we are planning a food bank “morning of service” from 9:00am to 11:30am at our 31st Avenue and Surprise food bank locations. Administrative and management staff and volunteers will be conducting service projects at both locations, such as sorting reclamation in Surprise and packing food boxes at 31st Avenue.

By holding this “hands-on” service project, we will be reconnecting with the roots of food banking as begun by John almost 40 years ago. Not only that, we will be supporting the organization’s values initially demonstrated by John of “encouraging teamwork” and “celebrating our heritage”.

Thank you, John, for the legacy you left behind is truly amazing!