By Elizabeth Tomlinson

In 1967, John van Hengel had been volunteering for two years at a Catholic soup kitchen in Phoenix. His task was to find food to meet the daily needs of the hungry who came there.

One day, he met a woman who had 10 children and nourished them with food discarded from grocery stores. She said it was like finding a "bank of food." Van Hengel founded St. Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix with a truckload of produce gleaned from Arizona farm fields and citrus groves. As word spread, groups all over the country started food banks. Organized gleaning and food recovery in the United States began with one Catholic man living his faith.

Gleaning is an ancient Biblical practice recounted in the story of Ruth, who was gleaning in the fields of Boaz when they fell in love. Boaz was a man of God who followed his law: "When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.... Leave them for the poor and the alien" (Leviticus 19:9-10). It is part of God’s justice that the land ultimately belongs to him, and sharing of its fruits with the needy is part of what it means to be holy.

John van Hengel’s sharing of knowledge and experience from St. Mary's Food Bank led to his founding of Second Harvest in 1979. He served as the first director of Second Harvest, which has become the country’s largest domestic , charitable hunger-relief organization, and the fifth largest charitable organization overall. Each year, the Second Harvest network helps provide emergency food relief for 26 million people, of whom about 11 million are children and 4 million elderly.

Second Harvest was joined by From the Wholesaler to the Hungry, whose mission is to add fresh fruits and vegetables to the diets of low-income Americans; by Foodchain, a network of programs that collect surplus prepared and perishable food from restaurants and grocery stores; and by the Society of St. Andrew, a network based in the southern United States.

Additionally, the National Hunger Clearinghouse was established. Its major emphases are gleaning, food recovery and answering the USDA Food Recovery Hotline. Through the hotline and educational outreach, National Hunger Clearinghouse provides information about efforts to fight hunger across the country. Resources include a database with more than 20,000 organizations that have ties to more than 150,000 programs, involving soup kitchens to restaurants.

In western Montana, food banks now exist in every town with a significant population, and community gardens increase in number each year. These gardens are based in neighborhoods, where those who live in the area raise food and give some to those poorer than themselves. In most areas, anyone can participate as a “volunteer for veggies,” for an hour or more, and receive produce.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a 2003 report, explains: “Every person has a right to life and to the material and spiritual support required to live a tru¬ly human existence. The right to a truly human life logically leads to the right to enough food to sustain a life with dignity. The poverty and hunger that diminish the lives of millions in our own land and in so many other countries are fundamental threats to human life and dignity and demand a response from believers.”

It all begins with the individual.

In Montana’s Bitterroot Valley, at the Catholic Worker Farm near Stevensville, Becky and Richard Bishop, along with volunteers, last year harvested over 2,000 pounds of apples and innumerable boxes of produce from the garden that they expanded for this purpose. They then distributed the food to Missoula’s homeless shelter and to the needy through other means. Working with other groups in the Bitterroot Valley, they made gallons of cider and gave it away.

The Bishops are an example of individuals who share the food they produce, and they are examples of what can be done. Anyone who has fruit from a tree in the yard, or surplus garden vegetables, can donate them to local food banks or homeless shelters. People unable to do the harvesting can call their parishes, neighbors or friends to help.

When John van Hengel died at 83, The Washington Post on Oct. 8, 2005, wrote than when he set up the first food bank in Phoenix, he was “barely more than indigent himself. His clothes came from the Salvation Army, he ate at the soup kitchen where he volunteered and his home was an apartment above a garage.”

This one Catholic man, who spent his last working days advising and setting up food recovery programs in other countries, is an example of what God can do with anyone willing to answer his call.


Elizabeth Tomlinson has been a member of Christ the King Parish in Missoula and recently moved to Judith Gap.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 26, No. 8, August 20, 2010.