National Food Bank Day – September 1, 2023

History of National Food Bank Day

St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance is a nonprofit, nonsectarian organization that was founded by John van Hengel in 1967. Van Hegel was looking for a way to prevent the wastage of groceries and eventually came up with the idea of redistributing any food that was not eaten to the hungry. St Mary’s was the first organization to operate using the food bank model. It is considered the first food bank, making St. Mary’s a pioneer in the food banking system. The organization has been successfully alleviating hunger for almost 50 years. This idea of food banks spread and many other food banks were created across the country.

Van Hengel continued his work and founded other food banks as well as the national organization America’s Second Harvest — known today as Feeding America. He also founded the Global Food Banking Network and has since been known as “the father of food banking.” National Food Bank Day was selected on behalf of Van Hengel to commemorate his extraordinary works.

In September 2000, world leaders established Millennium Development Goals and they signed a commitment to achieve them by 2015. The first goal was to end extreme poverty and hunger. They also specified three targets: The first was to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015. The second was to decrease the likelihood of a child dying before age five due to hunger and finally the third was to reduce the rate of extreme poverty. About 40 countries have already achieved the first target and extreme poverty rates have been cut in half since 1990. Food banks are a key component in the realization of these goals. In the U.S. alone, about 42 million people struggle with food insecurity and food banks are helping these people.