Food for Hope: How John van Hengel Invented Food Banks for the Hungry

by Jeff Gottesfeld, Michelle Laurentia Agatha (Illustrator)

Overview

Hunger continues to be an international problem. This true story of how one ordinary person did something extraordinary shows how everyone can do something to make a difference.

Readers will feel encouraged to find their own way to make a difference. Real life experience plus social justice interests combine into a powerful solution, filling empty bellies with nourishing food, all without costing a lot of money. Recycling meets hunger in John van Hengel’s ingenious, yet obvious solution to both food waste and widespread hunger.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781954354241
Publisher:	Creston Books
Publication date:	05/02/2023
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	344,465
Product dimensions:	9.25(w) x 11.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	7 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jeff Gottesfeld writes for page, stage, screen, and television. He's won many awards, including ones from the American Library Association, the Association of Jewish Libraries, and the Writer's Guild. His most recent title The Christmas Mitzvah was named a Sydney Taylor Honor Book. He currently lives in Los Angeles.

Michelle Laurentia Agatha was born in Indonesia. She's always had a huge interest in cartoons and illustrated books. Michelle earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California. Her most recent book, The Christmas Mitzvah, was named a Sydney Taylor Honor Book.

Editorial Reviews

"An inspiring profile warmed by its (not undeserved) sentimental glow."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2023-02-25
A loving tribute to grassroots activist John van Hengel, said to be the founder of the first food bank.

Van Hengel (1923-2005), who knew “the mind-numbing ache of hunger” from experience, found his vocation when, as a cook for his Arizona church’s soup kitchen, he discovered that grocery stores were discarding masses of useable stock. His gift was plainly an ability to think big; in 1967 he founded St. Mary’s Food Bank, which distributed 125 tons of donated food its first year. That led to Second Harvest (now called Feeding America). Van Hengel proved able to handle windfalls ranging from 5,000 live chickens to a million chocolate Easter bunnies—and he went on to help found more food banks around the world. Gottesfeld characterizes his subject’s early life as a “riches-to-rags” story, but he skips the causes of that descent and other specifics to focus on van Hengel’s achievements, faith, and humility before closing with a sentimental anecdote about a first grader who shook the then-old man’s “trembling hand,” saying, “You did good.” He did indeed. In the same idealized vein, Agatha arranges cast-out food in a dumpster with fussy precision, lays down chickens and chocolate bunnies in tidy rows, and depicts the joyful, plainly dressed White man joining racially diverse people standing in a food line, hauling bags and boxes, or gathered at tables. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An inspiring profile warmed by its (not undeserved) sentimental glow. (author’s note, note on research and dialogue, timeline) (Picture-book biography. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews