From the Gazette story, the difficult circumstances nearby communities face:
Dan Stein, president and CEO of Second Harvest of Southern Wisconsin, said the number of people facing hunger has increased across the state, but the situation is particularly dire in the southwestern part of the Wisconsin.
“Throughout the state, the numbers were between 30 and 50 percent, but here, it’s 83 percent,” he said. “There are a lot of reasons for that.”
Stein said unemployment has wreaked havoc on many communities in southwestern Wisconsin, particularly in communities such as Janesville and Beloit. More people know someone—a relative, a friend, a neighbor—who has lost a job and is struggling to make ends meet, he said.