Follow the commands below to change files and folders so they are accessible to users and the apache group as well by adding the user to the apache group and assigning full read, write, execute privileges to user and apache group.
cd /var/www
find . -type d | xargs chmod 775
find . -type f | xargs chmod [...]

To change owner of files or directories recursively in Linux use the following command: (MAKE SURE YU ARE IN THE DIRECTORY YOU WANT TO CHANGE THE FILES/FOLDERS WITHIN)
chown -R user/group — (substitute user/group with the user name and group name.
For example:
chown -R paul/administrator — (paul is the name of the user [...]

You can use ls -l command (list information about the FILEs) to find our the file / directory owner and group names.
More information: http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/unix-linux-find-file-owner-name/