What If Donated Food Was Delightful?

The Azure Bouré's Traditional Food and Medicine Program provides culturally relevant medicines to Suquamish tribal members and builds community trust while teaching future generations to adapt ancestral knowledge in real-time. As they respond to climate change, the Program has adapted traditional plant harvesting through flexible curriculum adjustments, strategic land partnerships, and transparent education about shifting growing cycles.

The Double Trellis Food Initiative aims to improve the quality of meals food-insecure residents receive from a vast network of food banks, soup kitchens, organizations, and agencies. In 2024, the initiative distributed more than 55,000 meals and began a workforce development program for juvenile offenders.

Members of a water-insecure community mobilized to contribute a portion of their monthly stipends to repair and maintain the singular borehole providing water to the village. The community members — primarily women — also installed water taps throughout the community in locations like schools and mosques to ensure easy access to clean, safe drinking water.

An insulated shed turned food pantry at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Des Moines, Iowa, is open 24 hours a day seven days a week. Community members can drop off donations or pick up food for themselves at any time for no cost. And the pantry has a refrigerator for perishable goods.

Over 20 organizations in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago work together under the name Austin Eats to improve healthy food access with food pantries, community gardens, and grocery stores.

To combat health and sanitary issues arising from high rates of open defecation and a lack of government support, community members worked together to fund and build 14 easily accessible toilets that are cleaned daily and open for anyone to use.

Urban farms across the United States are bringing affordable, fresh, and healthy foods to communities facing food insecurity and are forming connections with residents along the way.

More and more public libraries around the United States are creating seed libraries as a way to encourage gardening, combat hunger insecurity, and build community resilience. For example, the Jefferson Public Library in Georgia has seen the number of people using the seed library grow to more than 300 in 2021. It can be a lot of work to maintain the seed libraries, but some librarians see it as a way to engage the community.

Caltrain's $2.4 billion electrification of 51 miles of track replaced diesel trains with faster electric ones, resulting in ridership increases (it doubled on weekends) and shorter trips. This also led to an 89% reduction in riders' exposure to toxic pollution and an estimated 250,000 metric tons of annual carbon emissions reductions.

Several California cities have adopted a new approach to clearing homeless encampments that prioritizes housing over displacement, called Inside Safe. The model involves spending 6-8 weeks getting to know each encampment resident individually, matching them with appropriate housing, moving people gradually and minimizing police involvement. Los Angeles's Inside Safe program has moved 5,200 people indoors over three years, with approximately 25% securing permanent housing.