Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com December 14, 2015 • Hartford Business Journal 5 James Arena-DeRosa President and CEO, Foodshare. Highest education: Bachelor's in anthropology, Harvard University, 1978. Executive insights: "I think leadership's not telling people what to do all the time. It's knowing when to use your power and leverage critical changes and most of the time to trust the people around you. One of the most important things I think you do as a leader is to bring the right people in and to put the right people in positions to succeed." PDS has been meeting the needs of the construction industry since 1965. Our dedicated team of design and construction professionals welcomes the challenge of serving its past and future customers on their most demanding projects. New England Air Museum | Windsor Locks, CT This project is a memorial museum hangar at Bradley International Airport. The museum houses restored B-29 Superfortress "Jack's Hack" air crafts. 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FOR LIFE. ftr17532_08_06_c_m_nvdsl_pr_dp_rop_m2.indd 1 10/22/15 5:09 PM Arena-DeRosa wants to end hunger in CT By John Stearns jstearns@HartfordBusiness.com] T he new president and CEO of Food- share, James Arena-DeRosa, exudes energy, passion and perspective about food security and hunger issues built on a lifetime of helping others. "My whole life has been about making a difference in the lives of other people — it's all I ever wanted to do since I was little," Are- na-DeRosa said from Foodshare's Bloom- field office, where he started work Sept. 1. He oversees a food bank serving Hart- ford and Tolland counties that provided enough food for 12 million meals to 300 partner programs last year. It has 55 staff, about 6,500 volunteers, and took in $31.6 million in revenues in 2014, which includ- ed donated food valued at $25 million. He's fresh off a successful Turkey and Thirty campaign that collected 16,188 tur- keys for Thanksgiving and roughly $854,000 in donations. Arena-DeRosa experienced advocacy growing up in Walpole, Mass. His mother, a nurse, was active in the civil rights movement, helping shape her son and his three sisters. "I grew up in the lap of the civil rights movement," said Arena-DeRosa, 59, who's married and has two sons in college. "Free- dom Riders came to our house on fundrais- ing tours in the early '60s … anti-war rallies, environmental meetings, hunger walks — all at my house," he said, remembering con- gressional candidates visiting, too. "It had tremendous influence on who I am," he said, also noting the spiritual influ- ence from his Xaverian Brothers High School. He took his passion for helping oth- ers to organizations that included Oxfam America as director of public advocacy, the Peace Corps as New England region- al director, then the U.S. Department of Agriculture as Northeast regional admin- istrator for Food and Nutrition Service, where he oversaw $12 billion for 15 federal food and nutrition programs. After leaving USDA in 2013, he unsuc- cessfully sought to be the Democratic can- didate for Massachusetts lieutenant gover- nor in 2014, continuing a lifelong interest in politics. After college, he learned political and community organizing from Arturo Rodríguez, now president of the United Farm Workers, and worked on state and national campaigns for progressive Democratic can- didates, according to his LinkedIn profile. He may run for office again some day, but is focused on effecting positive change through Foodshare. "When I was at USDA, it was great, except I was almost too far removed from the com- munity work," Arena-DeRosa said. "One of the attractions to me for this job was that I was able to reconnect with the community, the people who are directly serving the pub- lic. We just learn so much from them from their work, and then using those experiences to influence policy, and that's another part that I couldn't do when I was in government." Foodshare does great work feeding peo- ple, he said, but he also sees its interest in advocating for ways to solve the problem of hunger and better nutrition, which affects health and the economy. He envisions tak- ing successful local models to state and national levels — to fuel larger change. "We're still a traditional food bank in the way we do a lot of things, but I think the way we think about things is forward- looking and so I think if I could help Food- share move in that direction, it would be a good thing," Arena-DeRosa said of "a little more emphasis on solving the problem of hunger, the kind of policy solutions … to really make a difference in people's lives." Mark La Fontaine, chairman of Food- share's board, said Arena-DeRosa has the high-level energy and vision directors sought. "What James very clearly set forth was his desire to be part of an organization that had a very strong core mission, but also one that was interested in addressing the needs of the community that it served in a way to reduce that need," La Fontaine said. Arena-DeRosa's other passions include playing piano, reading about history and politics, and enjoying art and culture. Then there's baseball. Arena-DeRosa is a big Boston Red Sox fan and holds season tickets. A small model of Fenway Park sits on his desk. He learned from a reporter Dec. 2 that the team had just signed top free agent pitcher David Price. "Are you serious?" he said, his voice rising. "The Red Sox did? Oh my God. You made my day." n H B J P H O T O | J O H N S T E A R N S James Arena-DeRosa enjoys politics and wants to shape policies that will solve Connecticut's hunger issue. EXECUTIVE PROFILE

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