Bags of food are ready for distribution at Sacred Heart Church in Waianae. (HCH file photo)
View from the pew
There’s a couple of months before the next major holiday celebration, but summertime has saints’ days and island events to celebrate them.
You won’t find these two men on the Catholic Church’s list of canonized saints. Their names are not even known to most of the thousands who followed in their footsteps and millions of people whose lives were blessed by their vigorous response to Christ’s teaching.
These fellows lived out the parable from Matthew’s Gospel in which Jesus described what would earn a person a place in heaven: “I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; a stranger and you welcomed me; naked and you clothed me; ill and you cared for me; in prison and you visited me.
“Whatever you did for these least brothers of mine, you did for me.
“Come you who are blessed by my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
I think I have sound reason to consider these humble American men saints. See if you agree.
A couple of recent, not exactly religious, experiences in Honolulu traffic raised my awareness of the legacy of these saints.
There was a phenomenal westbound traffic flow on Kalanianaole Highway one morning as we headed for Hawaii Kai. The left lane intended for faster traffic was at a standstill, backed up three blocks — drivers waiting for a left-turn signal to get into the grounds of Calvary by the Sea Lutheran Church. It was the church’s weekly drive-thru distribution of food, with hundreds of hungry people seeking help.
Another day on Beretania Street we observed more than 400 people in cars and on foot waiting to pick up food at Central Union Church.
At least 15 Catholic parishes are among the 70 churches on Oahu which feed the hungry in drive-thru or walk-up distribution, food pantries and soup kitchens. Religious organizations account for almost half of the 225 organizations which Hawaii Foodbank calls its “agency partners” on Oahu.
Of course we can donate directly to our parish, but Hawaii Foodbank has become the vehicle for so many of us to follow the teaching of Jesus. I confess I became an avid supporter only after the agency in 2023 stopped charging a fee for the supplies it shares with parishes and other distributors.
The founder of the whole food bank concept was a devout Catholic man who, I’m proud to say, was from Wisconsin. But it was in Phoenix, Arizona, where John van Hengel combined his college education in political science, his experience as a soup kitchen volunteer and his faith to found an efficient, organized approach to feeding the hungry.
It was a story in The Word Among Us, a monthly publication, that introduced me to this humble man.
“He may be the most influential Catholic that most people have never heard of,” wrote the author, Deacon Greg Kandra. His article, “From a Lamb to a Lion,” can be found online.
Van Hengel’s grassroots experience began by buying an old milk delivery truck and gleaning unharvested citrus fruit from orchards. He would later tell of a destitute mother who showed him “a bank of food” from which she fed her children — trash bins in which grocery stores dumped surplus foods, bruised fruit, dented cans, leaking bags of rice and sugar.
He collected bin contents but then went to the source, getting groceries and restaurants to share their unused surplus.
He persuaded the pastor of St. Mary’s Church to provide a warehouse, a former bakery building near skid row. By 1967, he had reached out to community organizations to join the cause.
In that first year, volunteers collected 250,000 pounds of food and handed it out through 36 charities.
In 1975, he received a $50,000 federal grant which was used to establish 18 food banks across America. John eventually consolidated his idea into a nationwide network called Second Harvest, which was formally incorporated in 1979. In the 1980s, he founded Foodbank Inc., a nonprofit that spread the concept to other countries.
While he was a modern businessman skilled in organizing and networking to partner with government, community and other agencies, van Hengel was a humble man who lived under a vow of poverty.
“I’d be a fool if I pretended I had a great vision,” he told a reporter. “I just planted a seed and water came from a hundred directions.”
He continued to return to the original St. Mary’s Foodbank as long as his health permitted. He was 83 when he died in 2005 in Phoenix.
Not a publicity seeker, his most well-known statement was, “The poor we shall always have with us, but why the hungry?” It’s a reference to a Gospel story in which Jesus told his apostles that unfortunate truth about poverty.
Although he received awards recognizing his humanitarian legacy, very little was ever written about van Hengel, according to Deacon Kandra in his article. The author pointed out the only biography he found, “Food for Hope,” an award-winning children’s book by Jeff Gottesfeld which I found at Barnes & Noble.
Learning the historical roots, I decided that Aug. 2 could be chosen as the feast day for this saint. That is the day when Hawaii Foodbank will hold its annual Food Drive Day collections at six locations on Oahu. Music and entertainment are part of the events from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Waterfront Plaza in Kakaako, Windward City Shopping Center in Kaneohe, Town Center of Mililani, Pearl City Shopping Center, Waiokeola Congregational Church in Kahala and Ka Makana Alii in Kapolei.
Like so many holidays, the focus is on food — but don’t come planning to eat; it’s our turn to give and not receive. I’m preparing for the event by investing in a load of Spam, noodles and rice, hopefully on sale.
I thought it would be a lead to my tale to call Hawaii Foodbank and ask if anyone from executive director on down had ever heard of John van Hengel. It turns out that name rings a bell … for another saint.
Hawaii Foodbank’s website honors its founder, the late John White, who grew up on an Illinois farm and moved to Hawaii to pursue a graduate degree in political science. He worked for the federally funded Model Cities program in Waianae and Kalihi.
In 1983, White started the local Foodbank using a donated truck and two refrigerator containers. He persuaded former Gov. John Waihee to provide state land for a warehouse. He invited business and community leaders to form a board of directors. He pushed the state Legislature to pass a Good Samaritan bill to address liability issues for people who donate food and other things to charitable agencies.
White “had a strong sense of justice and he understood that the food bank is only a little bit of the solution,” said his friend Amy Agbayani, a retired University of Hawaii executive and well-known civil rights and social justice advocate. “He understood the meaning of growing things and the importance of food from his days on the family farm,” she told a reporter for White’s 2003 obituary.
The first donation drive netted 25,000 pounds of food.
In 2024, Hawaii Foodbank distributed over 21.2 million pounds of food, including about 6 million pounds of fresh produce, primarily on Oahu and Kauai. Separate food banks operate on Maui and Hawaii island. Its website has a wealth of details on this vital pillar of our community, including information on donating all year long.
So if you can’t bring a boxful of food, or a fistful of cash, to one of the public donation celebrations Aug. 2, you can honor the legacy of the two Johns by being generous whenever the spirit moves you all year long.