The American obsession with civil associations fascinated Alexis de Tocqueville. In his great work Democracy in America, he marveled that “Americans of all ages, all conditions, all minds constantly unite” to solve common problems. This desire to associate with fellow citizens to solve problems was noticeably absent in Tocqueville’s European home. He wrote, “everywhere that, at the head of a new undertaking, you see the government in France and a great lord in England, count on it that you will perceive an association in the United States.”

Try Freedom Stories, a non-profit group that I founded four years ago, helps promote the amazing work voluntary associations still do in our communities. We seek to explore and advance answers to social problems based on community solutions. Too often, when we think about a big problem, like hunger and malnutrition, we think that a big problem must require a big solution. And the only institution capable of administrating a big solution is the government. But what if big problems can be solved with small solutions?

Our first project highlighted Peter Norback’s efforts to help keep the people of Tucson, Arizona from going hungry. His project, “One Can A Week” is a neighborhood food collection program started in 2009. Peter saw families in Tucson struggling with poverty and hunger. The local food bank was not able to meet the demand. Peter asked his neighbors in his working class neighborhood, if they would donate just one can of food a week to help the needy. It worked. In the five years, his neighbors have collected 65,000 pounds of food and donated over $13,000 to the community food bank.

“One Can a Week” is the very definition of small-scale problem solving. Elinor Ostrom argued that many small-scale problems could be solved by relying on the local knowledge of those in the community. Peter saw a problem and knew that he could do something simply by working with his neighbors. This small project has had a huge impact but the significance of it is much larger. With similar small efforts in neighborhoods all over America, we could end the huge problem of hunger in our country.

“One Can a Week” can teach us another lesson—accountability. Every week, Peter sends out an email to his neighbors with a picture of a grocery cart filled with all of their donations. Every year, Peter distributes a yearly report about the project to his neighbors. In so doing, he has made his neighbors stakeholders in “One Can a Week.” As “CEO,” Peter is accountable to them.

Compare “One Can a Week” with food stamps (SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Even the name is impersonal, sterile, and frankly, cringe-worthy. Good luck finding out how many families are actually helped by SNAP. The website is full of articles like “FY 2014 Allocations of 15 Percent Exemptions for ABAWDs – Adjusted for Carryover” and “Questions and Answers Concerning Section 4018 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 Prohibiting Gov Sponsored Recruitment Activities.” It’s real feel-good stuff. And that impersonality has an effect. Even the biggest bleeding heart has little trust in SNAP. We have all heard about massive fraud within the system and even robust black markets where the benefits are traded for cigarettes and alcohol.

The final lesson from “One Can a Week,” is that voluntary local associations and organizations make communities stronger. When Peter began, he only knew a couple people in his neighborhood. Today, he knows most of the people in the houses he visits. What’s more, several of his neighbors have become “block captains,” visiting the houses on their streets and collecting cans. Once people saw how easy it was to help, more people started helping. In Peter’s weekly email, he often recounts his conversations, animal sightings, and neighbors in need. “One Can a Week” has turned a typical working class neighborhood into a true community.

The story of “One Can a Week” is only one story among many that we want to tell. Try Freedom Stories has several more stories about other community solutions to hunger in Tucson and across the country. I was recently asked, “Aren’t you going to run out of stories at some point?” I had to laugh, “No, I don’t think there is any end in sight.” For every difficult issue we deal with in our lives, there are hundreds of groups addressing those very issues.

It’s easy to believe that communities across America have decayed, that people are apathetic and unwilling to help their neighbors. The evidence, however, is just the opposite. Americans are the most generous people, in terms of charitable giving and volunteering, in the world.

To solve a big social problem, start small. Build accountability into the program so that donors know where their money goes and they trust that they are making a difference. Community begets community. When people come together to solve a problem, they build something more than their own individual efforts – they build the tight knit foundations of a community.

Molly Thrasher is the Director of Projects and Founder of Try Freedom Stories, a non-profit dedicated to telling stories of community solutions to social issue problems (Facebook / Twitter). She holds a MA in film production from American University and BA from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Molly has over a decade of experience in video production and public relations. Since living in Tucson, she has consulted for several local and national political campaigns as a communications specialist. Molly currently works for a City Councilman in Tucson where she assists with development, transportation, and university area issues. She was a contributing author to David Schmidtz’s textbook Creating Wealth: Ethical and Economic Perspectives with an article called “Try Freedom.”