In response to the COVID-19 pandemic making access to groceries more difficult, The Walker River Paiute Tribe created a food pantry to support members of the tribe and local farmers. The food pantry has since become the largest in the state, by volume of distributed food, having distributed about 6,500 bags of food to over 355 households.

Members of a local Black, LGBTQ+ community joined together with Chicago's COVID Rapid Response team to bring COVID-19 vaccinations to the city's Black and Latino LGBTQ+ population — a group that is severely lagging behind the general population in terms of vaccination rates.

Community networks acted to keep people in Kashmir fed throughout COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns. The Bonamsar mosque provides donation-funded monthly meal kits and small cash payments to people in need, including cooked food for those in immediate need. Tiffin Aaw provided meals to residents during political turmoil and shifted to serving warm meals to COVID-19 patients and their medical and family caregivers that couldn’t afford food. Both services included the culturally traditional food that has led the region to have the country’s highest nutritional health.

The pandemic economy has left more people without money for quality food, a need addressed in some communities by "freedges" – community-run refrigerators dispensing free food. The food gets donated by groceries, restaurants, and individuals. Volunteers maintain the fridges, which typically are placed outdoors on a sidewalk. This form of "mutual aid" has grown in popularity nationwide, despite food-safety concerns by city health officials.

Accredited social health activists (ASHA) across India fight COVID-19 related misinformation on WhatsApp. ASHAs provide basic health care to people in their villages, which puts them on the frontline of treating COVID-19 patients and educating people to dispel the many myths about the virus and its treatments. ASHAs' local interactions often identify prevailing myths, which they quickly dispel in their face-to-face exchanges and by posting in the many local WhatsApp groups that have been created. The local groups have been an effective mode of educating people and helped ASHAs gain villagers’ trust.

The Joy For All Companion provides lifelike robot pets to lonely seniors. These robotic pets provide much-needed company to a group of people most at risk of being impacted by the loneliness epidemic that was exacerbated by COVID-19.

A community effort spearheaded by a local church and a software company is helping senior citizens in Markham, Ontario secure Covid vaccine appointments. Ahead of the vaccine rollout, a reverend and a parishioner began collecting senior's information via an online form, which allowed them to streamline the signup process. The effort's success has attracted surrounding communities who are now working with the duo to reach their seniors as well.

Community centers in New York are playing a crucial role in helping to connect the city's Asian residents with Covid vaccine appointments. From training translators on medical lingo to collecting local resident's information for online scheduling, these community organizations are "filling the gaps government agencies have left behind."

To help protect the predominantly Black community in Sedgwick County, Kansas, the county collaborated with local leaders and residents to create an information and messaging campaign that specifically addressed community concerns. Although the funding allocated to these efforts wasn't as plentiful as community leaders were asking for, the targeted outreach has helped to increase communication and trust around public health messaging.

The White Mountain Apache Tribe in eastern Arizona was able to slow the spread of Covid in the community by implementing a daily routine of "contact tracing, surveillance of high-risk individuals, and vaccinations." Since starting the regimen – which includes going door-to-door to community members' houses to monitor potential exposures, symptoms, and to offer vaccines – the tribe has curbed the spread and hasn't reported any more deaths in months.

Nursing homes adapted to COVID-19 so that they could protect residents’ physical well-being while also preserving their social and emotional health. Staff at Belknap County Nursing Home modified popular activities to make them safe, like hallway bingo, where numbers were called from hallways so that residents could stay in or near their rooms. Participation jumped 30% from pre-pandemic levels. An adaptation to another popular game, “Price is Right,” had staff bringing items, like snacks and toiletries, room-to-room so that residents could guess the price, with the person coming closest winning the item.

In India, citizen-led small-scale digital efforts are helping to connect Covid-19 patients with the resources, supplies, and medical equipment they need to survive. The citizen groups are largely using online platforms to crowdsource what they need, with some matching buyers and sellers and others "debunking inaccurate leads."

Sheikh Nuru Mohammed uses weekly sermons as imam at Al-Abbas mosque to dispel false information about the COVID-19 vaccine, inspiring hundreds of skeptical congregants to get vaccinated. He also turned the mosque into a vaccination center and 50 mosques have since done the same. Mohammed’s public vaccination and his sermons, which emphasize getting information from experts not social media posts, make an impact because it is coming from a trusted source rather than government officials. The mosque also delivered over 15,000 doses to people in the area, making an important connection with the local community.

Filipinos struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic can access free goods at the Maginhawa community pantry. The grassroots efforts started as a “give what you can, take what you can” effort.

Anti-Asian hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic have sparked a movement nationwide to stand up against bias and to help protect those most vulnerable to attack, the elderly. In one of America's oldest Chinese enclaves, Oakland's Chinatown, Compassion in Oakland has attracted thousands of volunteers of all races and ethnicities to chaperone the elderly on their errands and to patrol the streets as additional eyes and ears for the police. Shopkeepers and residents feel safer. And, among the volunteer protectors, bridges are being built where tensions and rivalries have long existed.

Community pantries in the Philippines are providing fresh produce and basic neccesites to Filipinos struggling with food insecurity during the pandemic. The pantries have sprung up in multiple cities, with cash and food donations pouring in from across the country.

In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, a phone line has helped tens of thousands of residents access information about Covid-19 as well as make appointments to receive their vaccinations. The helpline is a "natural extension of the services" already provided by United Way of Greater Cleveland’s 211 HelpLink.

A kindness station was set up in Sorsogon, Philippines, to provide relief for those experiencing food insecurity. Donations have provided funding for rice, instant noodles, canned goods, some produce, and even PPE for frontline workers in the area.

Indigenous Australians have fared far better than tribal regions in other parts of the world during the coronavirus pandemic due to a collaborative and proactive health campaign between health experts and aboriginal leaders. According to an Australian epidemiologist specializing in public health, “This is a most amazing response to the pandemic from a community that is so marginalized. This is probably the best evidence we have that if you put Aboriginal people in charge, then you get better outcomes.”

Court Watch PG acts as a traditional court watch program for Maryland's Prince George's County, but with a twist: the two formerly incarcerated women running it turned adversity, in the form of the pandemic's shutdown of trials, into opportunity in the form of a nationwide crew of volunteers watching over Zoom. The watchers attend bond hearings, where people jailed on pending charges try to gain pretrial release. After observing thousands of hearings, Court Watch PG has exposed flaws in the system, which it pushes to reform through the more than 100 "accountability letters" it has sent justice officials.

Community health workers are a key part of Connecticut's public health response to COVID-19, particularly in marginalized communities. CHWs connect people to health care and other services, like rental assistance, help with contact tracing, and effectively increased vaccinations by taking the time to answer questions and dispel misinformation. Living in the communities they serve is a critical part of the model’s success and helps clients trust them more readily. The state now offers a CHW certification program, but the largely grant-funded model would be more sustainable with steady funding.

In the South Park neighborhood of Seattle, community efforts during the coronavirus pandemic have resulted in the creation of a system that battles food insecurity. Spearheaded by the community center, a local non-profit, and a local restaurant, the community has built and expanded a kind of coordinated mutual aid that helps residents maintain access to hot meals and pantry items.

Washington state’s Native communities have led the way in distributing the Covid vaccine to their communities' most vulnerable and are now helping to vaccinate those who are outside of their tribes. Their success is due to a combination of factors, including direct outreach to those who needed the vaccine the most. According to the Seattle Indian Health Board CEO, “That’s the difference between state, county systems and other public health systems They’re not serving people [directly] every day.”

To save dozens of restaurants in San Francisco during the coronavirus lockdowns, a restaurant owner launched an organization that "provides monthly contracts to its restaurant partners to cook meals for underserved populations." The organization, which has 160 restaurant partners so far, helps fill the gaps left by the government-funded Paycheck Protection Program.

A community effort is underway in Massachusetts to help people secure Covid-19 vaccination appointments, despite a confusing government roll-out system. The Massachusetts COVID Vaccination Help volunteer group is composed of volunteers from across the state, who are using their free time to help individuals schedule appointments. Although there are concerns about privacy, users thus far have commended the group's persistence and success in booking appointments.