The most effective neighborhood change begins and ends with the people who live there. Citing LISC’s Communities for Healthy Food NYC program as a model, former director of programs Colleen Flynn outlines the importance of working with organizations rooted in the community in order to empower residents, improve health and whip up something nutritious.

Real change has to come from within, and helping bring better food and food awareness to neighborhoods in need—the goal of New York City LISC’s Communities for Healthy Food initiative—is a fundamentally grassroots endeavor. An article in Next City highlights how neighbors in Brooklyn and the Bronx, with LISC’s support, are working to improve their communities’ diets and health, mitigate food insecurity and strengthen social ties and entrepreneurship, all at the same time.

As part our work to improve access to affordable, healthy food in low-income neighborhoods across the country, LISC has invested in grocery stores, community gardens, farmers markets and nutrition education. Now, Duluth LISC and its partners have inaugurated a dedicated bus line to take residents of Lincoln Park, a perennial food desert, to the nearest full-service grocery store. The weekly “Grocery Express” is outfitted with special bins and racks to handle purchases, and mitigates the problem of lugging grocery bags on a crowded city bus that didn’t stop directly in front of the store.

Until recently, West Harlem was a NYC community with few healthy food options for low-income residents. But that changed this month with the opening of the West Harlem Community Healthy Food Hub. Celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson was on hand for a cooking demonstration alongside funder Laurie M. Tisch. West Harlem Group Assistance, a longtime LISC NYC partner, manages the site that provides a range of services including a client choice pantry, food stamp enrollment, nutritional counseling, and cooking classes. It’s all part of LISC’s place-based initiative funded by the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund to address issues of diet-related diseases, poverty, and unemployment.