The Power of Systems Change

"Summertime, and the livin’ is easy."

At least, that's how the song goes.

But for many families, summer is when some of the systems they rely on every day begin to pause. Schools close. After-school and camp programs end. The meals children receive during the school year are no longer available in the same way. The routines and supports that help families stay afloat disappear, while the need remains.

When summer camp ended, I got a call. "A child is hungry. Can we put together some food for the family?" A grandfather raising four grandsons had run through the family's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. His retirement and Social Security checks were still days away.

What stays with me is not the call itself, but how familiar it was. Situations like this happen every day. Nearly one in five New Orleanians and one in three children experience food insecurity. One family's gap this week becomes next month's citywide statistic. When systems cannot move as quickly as need, emergencies become predictable patterns.

But how do we stop individual emergencies from becoming predictable patterns? How can we thrive when we rely on individual systems to keep us afloat?

Communities need systems that work together because families don't experience their lives within individual systems. A child doesn't separate food from school, or health from housing, or transportation from opportunity. To that child, they're all part of the same day.

Systems change asks us to move upstream. It encourages us to look beyond treating symptoms and instead change the policies, practices, relationships, and resource flows that shape people's daily lives. Systems change is built on the knowledge that no single institution, whether schools, government, philanthropy, or nonprofits, can solve every challenge. The work begins by asking, "What immediate need can we address?" and also, "What conditions created this need in the first place?"

Think again of the grandfather raising his four grandsons. A box of food is the right response because it ensures those children eat that week. Without broader changes, another family, or perhaps the same one, will face that same emergency next month.

And the pressure on families is only increasing.

New federal policy changes are expected to significantly reduce access to SNAP, with Louisiana among the states likely to feel the effects most acutely. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the legislation will reduce SNAP funding by nearly $187 billion through 2034, the largest cut in the program's history. Millions of people are expected to lose benefits, while Louisiana will shoulder an estimated $42 million in additional administrative costs simply to operate a smaller program.

These numbers matter because they illustrate how deeply connected our systems really are. When food assistance is reduced, the effects don't stop at the grocery store. Families make impossible choices between food, childcare, transportation, healthcare, and housing. Schools, community organizations, healthcare providers, and local governments all absorb the consequences.

That's why systems change matters. When one system weakens, pressure ripples across the others.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has spent decades investing with that understanding. Rather than treating hunger as a problem solved one meal at a time, the foundation has focused on strengthening the systems that shape children's lives. Its work recognizes that lasting progress depends not only on meeting immediate needs, but also on building stronger connections between the institutions, policies, and community organizations that families rely on every day.

After Hurricane Katrina, our early care and education system was devastated almost overnight. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, building on its work in New Orleans since 1942, made a long-term commitment to rebuild an ecosystem that supports young children and families. The plan focuses on investing in and strengthening the relationships between community organizations doing critical work in education, health, food, family economic security, and community leadership. 

The New Orleans Food Policy Action Council (FPAC) offers a powerful example of what this approach looks like in practice. Since 2008, FPAC has brought together farmers, educators, healthcare leaders, advocates, and community organizations to strengthen New Orleans' food system through community-led solutions. FPAC has helped expand programs that allow families to stretch SNAP and WIC benefits at farmers markets, strengthening both household food security and the regional agricultural economy. At the same time, its Farm to Early Care and Education initiative connects more than 800 young children each year with fresh, locally grown food while supporting nutrition education, local farmers, and early childhood providers. 

The foundation’s investments across Greater New Orleans support the community organizations contributing to a systems approach. In neighborhoods where grocery store closures have left residents with few healthy food options, Sankofa's Fresh Start Market has created a trusted, community-led source of fresh, affordable produce while building reliable markets for regional farmers. Market Umbrella's Market Match program expands that impact by doubling the value of SNAP benefits at Crescent City Farmers Markets, making locally grown fruits and vegetables more affordable for families while directing hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to Louisiana's small-scale farmers. 

Together, these efforts strengthen the connections between producers, retailers, families, and neighborhoods so healthy food is available, affordable, and rooted in the local economy. The result is a stronger regional food system that improves health, supports local agriculture, expands economic opportunity, and helps communities become more resilient.

There is an important lesson here for philanthropy. Systems change depends on community leadership. Philanthropy's role is to help communities lead that work. 

Community organizations understand where systems break down because they are closest to the people navigating them every day. They know which partnerships are missing. They recognize the policies that create barriers. They see where families fall through the cracks because they are there when it happens. These organizations are the architects of stronger systems.

Philanthropy can recognize and invest in that expertise by providing flexible resources, bringing together partners who rarely work together, strengthening relationships across sectors, and trusting communities to define what progress looks like. 

Sometimes that means funding today's emergency. Just as often, it means investing so tomorrow's emergency is less likely to happen.

That is the work ahead. And I believe we can do it.

After all, the rest of the song goes like this:

"One of these mornings, you're gonna rise up singing.

Yes, you'll spread your wings, and you'll take to the sky."