Date: Tuesday, June 3rd Topic: Food Banks

TARGET VOCABULARY Assist= When you attend to a place and when you help someone else to do something. Favor = When a person helps another to do something. Misjudged = To judge wrongly Prior = Before / Previous Scheme = plan / model

FOOD BANKS Prior to starting a food bank, John van Hengel helped out in a soup kitchen. He discovered that grocery stores throw away edible food. He asked them to donate that food to the soup kitchen.

The soup kitchen was soon overloaded with food! John misjudged the amount of food he needed. He ended up with far more food than he could use.

John began to think up a scheme. What if he could store food the same way that a bank stores money? Then the food would be there for hungry people when they needed it.

He also asked farmers to do him a favor. He asked for their extra food. With this food, he started St. Mary’s Food Bank, the country’s first food bank.

St. Mary’s got money from a grant. This money was used to assist in starting 18 new food banks. Today the Phoenix food bank alone hands out about 60 million pounds of food!

1. John thought of a scheme to store food for hungry people. 2. John worked in a soup kitchen prior to starting a food bank. 3. John misjudged how much food he would need and ended up with too much.

4. What is the last favor you did for a friend? 5. How might you assist a student who is new to your school?