by Lindsay Cuomo, Strategic Advocacy and Engagement Manager, and Maddy Grimes, Program Intern
When we recount the history of America’s efforts to reduce food insecurity, large-scale government programs often take center stage. But long before these policies existed, people were already responding.
For far more than 250 years, communities have met hunger with compassion, creativity, and collective action. America’s anti-hunger story has been shaped by people who saw an empty plate and decided not to look away.
They cooked meals, collected supplies, cultivated gardens, and built networks to care for one another. Their work met immediate needs and exposed gaps in existing systems, pushing us toward broader change.
Early networks of care
During the Revolutionary War, women traveled with the Continental Army as camp followers. They cooked, washed clothes, cared for sick and wounded soldiers, and performed other work that helped sustain military camps when formal supply systems fell short.
As communities continued developing their own ways to meet urgent needs, mutual aid became more organized. In 1787, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones founded the Free African Society in Philadelphia. Members contributed dues to care for the sick, support families, and find apprenticeships for children. The organization became an early model of Black mutual aid, built by and for a community that received little assistance elsewhere.
Women formed benevolent societies to formally coordinate support. Founded in Charleston in 1813, the Ladies’ Benevolent Society delivered supplies and provided medical care to people experiencing poverty. Its work gave women, who were largely excluded from public leadership, a way to organize resources and respond collectively to needs within their community.
These efforts were more than acts of generosity. They were communities building their own systems of care, support, and survival.
Organizing for greater impact
During the Civil War, thousands of volunteers joined the U.S. Sanitary Commission, which worked to improve conditions for Union soldiers. Women organized large Sanitary Fairs featuring donated crafts, food, and entertainment. The proceeds helped purchase and distribute supplies to military hospitals and camps.
These efforts demonstrated what organized volunteers could accomplish. They also helped move community service beyond isolated acts of assistance and toward coordinated networks capable of collecting money, managing supplies, and responding on a much larger scale.
Beginning in the late 1870s, Charity Organization Societies recruited volunteers known as “friendly visitors” to meet with families and assess their circumstances. Their work helped lay the foundations for modern social work.
The Settlement House Movement offered another model. Toynbee Hall opened in London in 1884 as a center where volunteers lived and worked in a neighborhood experiencing widespread poverty. Its approach inspired settlement houses in the United States, beginning in the late 1880s. These neighborhood centers provided food, education, health services, and other support.
The most important lesson was not simply that communities needed more charity. It was that hunger was connected to housing, health, employment, education, and access to opportunity.
Feeding people and challenging systems
During the Great Depression, community action took on a sharper edge.
Local unemployed councils organized relief, resisted evictions, and planned hunger marches. People were not only helping one another endure the crisis. They were demanding public action on unemployment, hunger, and economic insecurity.
Their work illustrated a powerful truth: Direct service and advocacy are not competing approaches. A community kitchen can feed someone today, while a march, public hearing, or conversation with policymakers seeks to prevent the same hardship tomorrow.
That connection between service and systems change became especially visible during the civil rights era.
In 1967, John van Hengel established St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix after recognizing that edible food was being discarded while families went hungry. That idea helped launch the modern food bank movement and eventually a national network now known as Feeding America.
Two years later, the Black Panther Party launched its Free Breakfast for Children Program in Oakland. Volunteers secured donations, prepared nutritious meals, and fed children before school. The program expanded rapidly, feeding more than 20,000 children nationally in 1969 and operating in dozens of cities by the early 1970s.
The program did more than serve breakfast. It demonstrated the scale of childhood hunger, challenged the government to respond, and showed what communities could accomplish with coordinated action. Community members identified a need, built a solution, and helped move that solution into public policy.
In the decades that followed, people continued finding creative ways to connect available food with neighbors who needed it.
In 1973, Liz Christy and the Green Guerillas transformed an abandoned New York City lot into the Bowery Houston Community Farm and Garden. Their work helped energize the city’s community garden movement, turning neglected spaces into places where neighbors could grow food, build relationships, and reclaim their communities.
In 2016, Jessica McClard launched the first Little Free Pantry in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Modeled after the Little Free Library concept, the small wooden pantry provided food, personal care products, and household supplies with no applications, appointments, or questions. Neighbors could contribute what they had and take what they needed.
From a meal to a movement
There are hundreds of other examples of communities in action, including quite a few right here in our own state. Oklahomans are well known for our salt-of-the-earth grit and remarkable kindness towards others. It’s become the standard we are known for. We are so fortunate to see the amazing work happening in communities across our state every day, led by our passionate partners. And that is what keeps us pushing forward.
Community action saves lives and strengthens neighborhoods, but volunteers and nonprofits cannot carry the full weight of hunger alone. Community efforts are powerful tools for meeting immediate needs. They also reveal where systems are falling short and help point us toward lasting solutions.
Over the past year, Oklahoma’s SNAP participation has declined by more than 15%, a number expected to increase due to new applicant requirements and funding cuts passed in H.R.1. Other economic indicators suggest that the number of Oklahomans who qualify for SNAP has not declined. This growing gap signals that fewer eligible people are accessing assistance, not that fewer people need it.
Food banks and other community organizations are already feeling the effects. Our partners report increased demand for food assistance as fewer families access SNAP.
Supporting our neighbors also means speaking up when access to food is at risk. Here are ways you can take action:
- Contact your state and federal lawmakers. Sharing your experience can help them understand how these policies are affecting Oklahomans and the community organizations working to meet growing needs. Not sure who represents you? Visit the OK Voter Portal to find your legislative districts and elected officials.
- Share your story with us. Hunger Free Oklahoma would love to hear from you. Your unique perspective helps us identify the needs in our state and amplify solutions for systemic change.
- Join the conversation. Educate your neighbors and friends about the importance of SNAP and other nutrition assistance programs. Follow HFO on your favorite social channels to stay up to date on the latest policy and legislative updates happening right now.
- Vote! We have elections coming up this August and November. Make a plan today to ensure your voice is heard. Verify your voting location, review sample ballots, request an absentee ballot, register, and more at OK Voter Portal.