Today Front Porch launches an annual tradition of naming its Person of the Year. In various magazines those chosen are typically high-profile individuals. In this venue, the individual selected is a Bahamian citizen or resident who, though likely not a high-profile individual, has contributed significantly to our national life in the past year. This year's choice is Alanna Rodgers, a leading Bahamian social entrepreneur, who is helping the country to rethink philanthropy, corporate citizenship and the role of the social sector in national development.
Hunger and malnutrition mostly ravage individuals in "low-income, rural areas of developing countries" with three-quarters of the undernourished living in these countries and "the percentage of hungry people ... highest in east, central, and southern Africa," according to The Bahamas Hands for Hunger website.
Among the approximately 820 million to over one billion hungry people in the world are the many millions who go hungry in the most affluent and developed countries on the planet.
The United States of America is a political, military and economic behemoth. Yet in the land of superabundance and the super-rich, "82.6 million Americans are at risk of or suffering from hunger and are living at or below poverty", according to the Capital Area Foodbank of Washington D.C.
The American Banking and Market Report observed that Americans spent $60.9 billion on weight-loss products in 2010. A March, 2014, Associated Press report on the CBS Money Watch website noted: "Americans spent an all-time high of $55.7 billion on their pets in last year and spending will creep close to $60 billion this year ... The biggest part of spending in 2013 -- $21.57 billion -- went for food -- a lot of it more expensive, healthier grub ... "
America spends more taking off weight than scores of countries combined spend putting on weight. It spends more on its pets than scores of countries combined are able to afford for basic food for many millions. And it wastes enough food a day to feed millions at home and abroad.
S. Census ACS 2006-2008)
Washington D.C. is the capital of the world's superpower, the seat of power for arguably the most powerful country in human history. It is also a classic tale of two cities: Washington, the city of gleaming white monuments and mostly white affluent residents, and the District of Columbia, mostly black, with hunger rates some considered that of various third world countries.

Shadow
In the shadow of the grand dome of the imposing U.S. Capitol Building, "one in eight District households is struggling against hunger", according to D.C. Hunger Solutions. The Capitol Area Foodbank notes, "1 in 3 residents in Washington, D.C. is at risk of hunger." (U
And Food for all D.C. reports: "Approximately 200,000 children are at risk of hunger in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area - 56,000 in the District alone or 1 in 2 children."
In many countries and cities of affluence, hunger is often hidden, but chronic, with hunger having worsened in many locales following the Great Recession.
New Providence, inclusive of Paradise Island, is one of the more affluent islands or geographic areas in the Caribbean. There is a glut of American fast food chains alongside an array of medium- to high-priced restaurants, with Bahamians now enjoying luxury foods like sushi.
Food store shelves are stocked with all manner of choices from meats to cereals to an unhealthy extravaganza of high calorie, sugary and processed foods.There are also upscale food stores and gourmet markets catering to more luxury tastes. Ours is a meat-intensive diet.
There is plenty of food and wealth on New Providence. Yet, according to Hands for Hunger, "one in six Bahamians go hungry every day and 50 per cent of those living in hunger are children."
Many children in New Providence either do not get breakfast or are fed in a growing number of breakfast programs. And for many children their last meal, nutritious or otherwise, is the lunch program in government-operated schools. During the summer break many food programs are unavailable.
While many in affluent societies including The Bahamas are often able to ignore issues of hunger, poverty and inequality, Alanna Rodgers at the age of 21 decided to make a difference in the lives of thousands of hungry Bahamians.
In 2008, the year the Great Recession began, Rodgers, along with a group of other young people, launched Hands for Hunger with this ambition:
"Our vision is a transformed Bahamas where everyone has access to three nutritious and fortifying meals each day. No one goes hungry. The quality of our environment is enhanced."
It is an ambition born of this inspiration:
"Our inspiration was founded on the critical realization that an incredible amount of edible food is thrown away every single day by restaurants, hotels, cruise ships, markets, bakeries, and other local vendors. Meanwhile, countless people struggle to secure their next meal.
"We asked ourselves: how can we possibly expect issues of violence, crime, poor education, unemployment, and environmental ills to be eliminated, when we cannot first satisfy the most basic of human needs by guaranteeing that every citizen has food to eat?"

Mission
It is an inspiration with this mission:
"We strive to inspire a shared sense of social and environmental responsibility amongst citizens, who, individually and collectively, come to realize the power of their own contributions. We do this by food rescue and distribution, education and other innovative solutions aimed at achieving national food security."
Rodgers marries ambition, inspiration and mission with great passion and enormous talent. She has been described by those working with her as possessing a combination of high intelligence, creativity and compassion. She thinks and speaks in the language of transformation, the language of entrepreneurs seeking everything from medical breakthroughs to innovations in communications.
Indeed, she is a leading voice of a new generation of Bahamian social entrepreneurs, committed to blending international best practices, business savvy, innovative strategies and an array of entrepreneurial skills to respond to pressing social issues.
Rodgers understands the linkages between social problems and appreciates the vital role to be played by the social sector in partnership with government and the business community in addressing a host of social challenges.
She worked with the former government and then Minister with responsibility for Social Services Loretta Butler-Turner to get passed "The Good Samaritan Law of 2010, which protects food donors from liability associated with their donations."
Rodgers and her team convinced many high-profile players in the hotel industry and in the business community to donate food, money and in-kind goods. Hands for Hunger partners with an impressive array of outreach agencies to provide 10,000 nutritious meals every week. Beneficiaries include groups ranging from Teen Challenge, the Bahamas AIDS Foundation, the Salvation Army and Great Commission Ministries International.

Impressive
Within a few short years Hands for Hunger has become one of the more notable, successful and well-run non-profits in the country. Its well-designed website and communications suggest a certain entrepreneurial savvy not often associated with local groups. Its fundraising strategies are impressive such as the annual Paradise Plates.
Its food rescue program is equally impressive. As noted by the agency: "To date, we have rescued more than 650,000 lbs. of fresh, surplus food and provided the equivalent number of meals to Bahamians in need [and]each week, our two refrigerated trucks collect and distribute an average of 2,500 lbs. of food.
Rodgers understood from the inception the need to make the organization sustainable. While she sits on the board of the agency, she stepped aside from the daily running of the organization.
There is a professional staff, with an executive director and a board of directors comprised of a group of highly-talented thirty-something- and forty-something-year-old Bahamians.
The agency is guided by strategic planning and is committed to innovation. What makes Rodgers a successful social entrepreneur is not only the thousands now fed weekly. She has also helped to model how non-profits should be operated.
The not yet 30-year-old social entrepreneur embodies the well-known adage of thinking globally and acting locally. She is a globe-trekker and an adventurer, who reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and volunteered at an orphanage in Madagascar.
Like other successful entrepreneurs with a broad range of curiosities and ideas, Rodgers seems set to create a number of start-ups in various fields.
With an appreciation of how food and cuisine capture and represent a country's history, Rodgers "launched Tru Bahamian Food Tours in the Fall of 2012 on a mission to connect visitors with Nassau's most beloved culinary treasures and the local artisans, chefs and entrepreneurs preserving these traditions."
She is helping to bolster the niche and potentially lucrative heritage and food tourism sectors. One can only imagine her next idea.
For now, she has helped to bring more focus to issues of hunger and poverty. She will likely become one of the leading social justice advocates in the country. Rodgers is a beacon and bellwether of creative change and how to organize for social transformation. She matches vision with action.
What she has already accomplished is impressive. And there is likely much more to come.
Alanna Rodgers is a Bahamian face of a global social sector revolution combining community service, social venture ideas, new forms of volunteerism, philanthropy, social marketing and other innovations to transform lives and communities while reducing inequality and poverty.
The country is fortunate to have a young Bahamian of such ideals, imagination and boundless energy.

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