South L.A. Community Fridges feed and support local residents

Neighborhood Centers, a Houston anti-poverty program has a simple philosophy: “The people are the asset, the source of potential solutions, not the problem.” The non-profit has scaled nationally, employing its bottom-up approach to disburse funds in poor communities.

Food waste costs billions of dollars a year and is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. French government just passed a law banning grocery stores from destroying or throwing away unsold food, and instead directing it to those in need.

Padua Project is an innovative program that has a goal of getting poor people out of poverty in three years with a job, three months’ savings and off government assistance. Its unusual success involved a collaboration with other social services organizations. Overcoming the big challenge of this collaboration is an important learning tool to scale similar initiatives.

World Concern, a Seattle-based Christian humanitarian group, provides people around the world with vouchers they can use in select markets, rather than the traditional emergency food aid of rice and other grains. In Dhobley, Somalia, the solution of vouchers quickens the process of receiving the food and contributes to the local economy.

Even with all available help, New Yorkers miss about 100 million meals each year - food stamps are not enough. But some New York food banks allow for the homeless to choose their own food products, making healthy choices easier.

Neighborhoods in Chicago suffer from gang violence and gun-related deaths. A church leader and a physician trained in infectious diseases created Cure Violence, a program that sends teams of local residents to meet with gang leaders as a means of producing positive behavioral change by re-setting social norms. Their approach has reduced violence between 40% and 70%.

In 2014, the Los Angeles Police Department announced that gang-related crime had dropped by nearly half since 2008. The transformation of LA holds lessons for decreasing violent crime through community policing, a focus on gangs, and the use of CompStat.

Juvenile offenders can feel as though they have no chances for a good future. Volunteers of America’s Face Forward 2 program helps young people in Cleveland to complete their education and to find employment. With this program, juvenile offenders believe they can succeed.

The Queensbridge Houses, one of the nation's largest public housing projects, is celebrating more than one year without a shooting in what Mayor de Blasio called "a year of golden silence." Security measures such as the implementing of lights and cameras, combined with the creation of the 696 Queensbridge, a team of ex-convicts who patrol the area, has greatly reduced violence in the area.

New Jersey was one of seven states chosen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to participate in a pilot program for SNAP recipients, where eligible participants can use food stamps for grocery purchases online for the first time.