You can find thousands of people making a positive difference. The reason people live there in the first place is they don't have significant power. Volunteering at a food bank is not going to change the situation.

In the end community action is often pointless at a larger scale.

PS: Not to be overly negative but guess where the poor area is on this map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Subway_map#/medi...