When Food Isn't the Answer to Hunger

Texas mutual aid groups raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help people with food, housing, and other supplies after natural disasters, which are increasing due to climate change. Organizers go door-to-door and use social media to identify people in need of assistance, particularly people impacted by structural inequalities in low-income communities, communities of color, and people with insecure housing. Donors, most of whom also come from the community, help with cash or goods donations. Recipients aren’t means-tested and the neighbors-helping-neighbors model allows for quick and passionate action.

Some social welfare programs may receive funding but have no evidence of success. By insisting that funds go primarily to programs with rigorous evidence of success, the federal government can make non-partisan decisions that will increase the effectiveness and efficiency of social programs and decrease spending waste. Obama administration evaluated programs based upon their successes and these programs are highlighted.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, several community-led organizations are joining forces to help those in need by gathering and distributing supply donations and helping those affected apply for FEMA assistance, unemployment and other relief support.

Nine philanthropic organizations, including Plan International and Comic Relief, make up the With and For Girls Collective, which asks teenage girls worldwide to select girl-led initiatives to fund, a process known as participatory philanthropy. Since 2014, the collective has funded 60 organizations across 41 countries for nearly $3 million.

Well-known Silicon Valley companies started the Bridge International Academies in 2007, an experimental school model, across some East African countries in an attempt to increase the quality of education, while promising a cost of $6-7 monthly per student. Bridge has now opened over 520 schools, serves over 100,000 students, and consistently showed rising graduation rates and testing performance, but its system of tablet-centered education and standardized curriculum has received criticism from its own teachers and government officials, who are weary of releasing control of their country's education system.

In a randomized experiment in western Uganda, scientists demonstrated the effectiveness of paying rural farmers not to chop down trees since deforestation contributes to CO2 emissions worldwide. They studied for two years the declines in forest cover between a control group (no payment) and the participant group (paid). Building on a United Nations project in which wealthy nations pay poorer ones in an attempt to equalize the costs of responding to climate change, the outcome of the project proves the existence of a low-cost environmental policy solution to stemming rising global temperatures.

In Lebanon, services for refugees are often misguided and ineffective. To address this issue, the country created a cash-debit card allowance for refugees, providing a more appropriate resource than the typical aid program.

In Jakarta’s slums, families can’t buy their children nutritious food. So Mercy Corps started a for-profit chain of food carts selling healthy kids’ meals. A second column highlights the challenges NGOs face when they try to start for-profit businesses.

Gleaning organizations across the U.S. collect surplus food from farms, grocery stores, and markets that would otherwise go to waste, then distribute it through free-food markets and food banks to address both food insecurity and environmental harm in their communities.

The New Commonwealth Fund provides grants to Boston-area organizations that are making an impact in communities of color, with more than $16.3 million awarded to more than 250 organizations so far. However, national backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives has prompted the fund to shift some of its fundraising strategies and even remove a reference to racial equity from its name.