As COVID-19 rips through the United States, the impact the pandemic has had on communities across the country has garnered a lot of national attention.

Many of the issues that are now being spotlighted — income inequality, lack of access to the internet, food insecurity — have been things that activists and community advocates have sounded the alarm on for years, hoping for funding or their local government to step in and take action. Now that we’re in the thick of one of the worst economic fallouts in history, some local leaders are taking action on their own to address problems that have been festering for years, but have been accelerated by coronavirus.