The first known ‘food bank’ was established in the US city of Phoenix, Arizona, in 1967 by John van Hengel – a volunteer at a busy St. Vincent de Paul soup kitchen. One day he noticed a woman going through a trash bin behind a supermarket, uncovering that supermarkets and restaurants were throwing away enormous amounts of perfectly edible food every day. He began meeting with store managers in the area and persuaded them to donate the unsaleable food to his charity