Charlottesville Built a Food Equity Plan. It Never Built the System To Carry It Out.

Community-led mapping and risk assessments by Pamoja Trust enabled informal settlement residents in Nairobi to document accurate data showing more accurate counts of people at flood risk (nearly 12 times more than official estimates identified). This gave communities evidence to advocate for inclusion in government recovery programs and influence official regeneration planning.

In a Pittsburgh food desert, the addition of a new supermarket increased residents' level of satisfaction with their neighborhood. Researching people's relationship with food and their community could improve federal efforts to fight food insecurity and poor eating habits.

Baltimore has dramatically reduced homicides through a multi-pronged approach involving a data-driven Group Violence Reduction Strategy, credible-messenger intervention programs, and aggressive prosecution of illegal gun possession. This has resulted in a record-low murder rate in 2026, with 60 killings recorded through August compared to roughly 220 at the same point four years prior.

Atlanta's city government used public real estate, favorable financing, and a quasi-public development authority to open a privately-operated grocery store in a downtown food desert within nine months, serving more than 150,000 customers with prices matched to Kroger and generating nearly 20% revenue growth.

Gatgyeda Haayk's community garden tackles food access challenges in Metlakatla by patiently building rich soil over many years, enabling diverse crops to flourish despite Alaska's difficult growing conditions. This effort not only provides fresh food but also revitalizes cultural heritage by cultivating traditional plants like "Indian potatoes" and fostering community sharing.

Ajo, Arizona is home to a growing collective, collaboration of local agriculture and food-based initiatives. The small town coordinates actors from schools, restaurants, the farmers’ market, local gardens, and community supported agriculture initiatives in a network under the Ajo Regional Food Partnership. The network also works with the Desert Senita Community Health Center, making sure the benefits of the collaboration equitably reach all citizens.

Chicago's Our Roots Chicago initiative has planted tens of thousands of trees, but its request-based planting system, cultural distrust, and maintenance failures have left the city's most tree-deprived census tracts still significantly underserved.

Various government policies and programs have been implemented in Black communities facing urban decline but not all of them have been completely successful. Initiatives included: Expanding public transportation, refining tax codes, providing incentives for corporations, and supporting small businesses. The ideas yielded some results but also led to unintended negative consequences.

In 2008, Vancouver’s mayoral candidate Gregor Robertson said he would transform the city to be the world’s greenest by 2020. One decade later, steps toward decreasing greenhouse gas emissions have been made, but the 2020 prospect seems much farther ahead. While the city has run into obstacles, the Canadian city is moving forward to achieve its next goal: for buildings to produce more energy than they use.

In 2014, the California legislature passed legislation to create the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones (UAIZ), offering tax breaks to landowners to turn their vacant lots into community farms. However, the legislation has failed to create any kind of community impact: only 4 lots have received the tax break in the 4 years that the program has existed. Landowners have been disincentivized by five-year lending terms and insufficient implementation.