Franciscan Friars’ Legacy Spring Speaker Series

St. Mary’s Basilica welcomes the public to attend their free speaker series this coming March. The Franciscan Friars will lead conversations with featured guest speakers to share their history, personal stories, the impact of three Valley institutions and their relationship with St. Mary’s Basilica. The Franciscan Friars will depart the Basilica this summer after 127 years of service to the community and this series is part of their Legacy Celebration.

On Sunday, March 5, Jeff Gottesfeld will be the featured speaker to discuss St. Mary’s Food Bank. Gottesfeld writes for page, stage, screen and television. He has won awards in America and internationally, including from American Library Association, the Association of Jewish Libraries, the Writer’s Guild of America, the National Council for the Social Studies, and the American Alliance for Theater and Education. His credits include film (Broken Bridges), television (Smallville, As the World Turns, The Young and the Restless), and for the stage (The World’s Strongest Librarian), his current focus is on picture book texts for children. Upcoming in 2023 are Food for Hope (Creston, May 2, 2023), a picture book biography of Roman Catholic unsung hero John van Hengel, who invented the food bank movement. A native of Teaneck, New Jersey, he now lives in Los Angeles, is Jewish, and observant. Visit his website at jeffgottesfeldwriter.com.

Gottesfeld will discuss his new book “Food for Hope: How John van Hengel Invented Food Banks and Fed the Hungry”.