It was quite a year: 1985 was not only marked by a devastating famine in Africa, it was a year remembered for its splashy benefit events. It was the year of Live Aid, Band Aid, Farm Aid and the rash of entertainment-industry charity events that they spawned. During that same year, in a ski cabin in Snowmass, Colo., a small group of retired food industry executives were discussing a decidedly quieter philanthropic effort of their own.
"There was tremendous famine taking place across northern Africa. Millions were dying. And I thought, maybe the food industry could offer the proper venue to do something about it," recalled Dick Katzenbach, the retired president of Fleming Cos.
The ski trip was a social gathering at Katzenbach's vacation home, but Katzenbach's guests, who included Gene O'Neil, chairman of General Grocer in St. Louis, Karl Sheffield of IGA, and the late George Small, who operated a family-run distributor in York, Pa., and a holder of a large tract of land in Africa, were all impressed with the idea.
When they returned to sea level, they'd agreed to go to Washington, D.C., together and see about how they could help.
The Food Industry Crusade Against Hunger, or FICAH, was born. FICAH is now known as Food For All.
"Dick Katzenbach had this concept and he talked with some of us who were skiing with him about it," O'Neil recalled. "Partly because of our great respect for him, we immediately got behind the concept and agreed to get it started."
Through meetings with the Food Marketing Institute, the National-American Wholesale Grocery Association (since renamed Food Distributors International, then merged into FMI) and the Peace Corps, a structure and philosophy of FICAH began to take shape. Supported mainly by cash contributions from food distributors, FICAH would fund overseas programs focusing not just on food for the needy, but on helping the needy produce their own food.
"For us to attempt to feed people was unproductive, and there were already lots of organizations trying to do that," Katzenbach said. "We decided to attempt to fund private voluntary organizations that were already engaged in the field, teaching people how to feed themselves."
Meetings with the Peace Corps put FICAH representatives in touch with George Scharfenberger, who at the time was stationed in North Africa. Knowledgeable about the area in need, and passionate about the types of programs FICAH wished to support, Scharfenberger was named the organization's first president, and continued working for them when he returned to the U.S.
O'Neil volunteered to keep the books and reach out to others in the food distribution business for their support. He said he was surprised and delighted by the generosity of his business peers, some of whom responded with checks of $50,000 or $60,000. "At Fleming, Chief Executive Officer Dick Harrison told Katzenbach the idea had merit and that he would pledge. I then talked to Ted Wetterau in St. Louis, who was a competitor of mine, and in five minutes, he said, 'If Dick Katzenbach and Dick Harrison think this is a good idea, Wetterau will also make a pledge.'
"We had people of consequence continually step up to the plate like that," O'Neil continued. "That support was the most encouraging thing."
O'Neil also reached out to his business contacts in banking and accounting who provided free services for the fledgling charitable group, which relied on similar generosity from its early directors. "Everybody paid for their own expenses. Nobody charged for a single cup of coffee or a single trip to Washington. We were all so dedicated, it was understood between us there would be no expenses of an administrative nature but for the work of George Scharfenberger," said O'Neil. "We had a cost factor of under 10%. That was one of the reasons we got as much support as we did."
Under the direction of Scharfenberger, cash contributions from the food industry were directed toward overseas programs aimed at helping reduce hunger by encouraging self-sufficiency. One early project Katzenbach recalls was the funding of fish farms in Rwanda which earned FICAH recognition from the Peace Corps and a citation from President George H.W. Bush.
But unlike some of 1985's more memorable charity drives, FICAH's efforts went largely without publicity, buzz or consumer support -- in part because its founders never sought it. "It wasn't ever driven by the idea of, 'What can this do for my business?"' said Denis R. Zegar, who today serves as Food For All's president and CEO. "It was about funding, with their own companies, a true belief that they could make a difference abroad."
