Did you know that with every dollar we donate, Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin can provide seven meals to people who are struggling with hunger? We'll have a Second Harvest Cash Donation jar at our courtesy table for the rest of our 2009-2010 concerts!

Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin is a member of Feeding America. They serve all of Southern Wisconsin through a 16-county service area. Their message? Together, we can end hunger! See the national One in Eight Hunger Prevention commercials.

We all think we’ve experienced hunger — our stomachs growl, we grab a snack to hold us over until our next meal or
just tough it out until dinnertime.

But real hunger is much different. It is an uneasy or painful feeling that results from unwillingly going for an extended period of time without adequate food to sustain health and strength because food is not available to you.

Food, along with clothing and shelter, are the most basic of human needs, and yet many in our community truly don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Hunger is colorblind, and does not discriminate on the basis of age.

For most of us, our image of hunger has come from seeing pictures of severely malnourished children in Third World countries — the victims of famine and starvation. It can be very difficult to accept that there are people in our own community — perhaps even in our own neighborhood — who are hungry. It is hard for us to believe because we can't easily see it. Yet nearly 103,000 of our neighbors in southwestern Wisconsin do not have access to the food that is essential to sustain their health and strength. They are children, the elderly and disabled, and the working poor in our communities.

The community charities served by Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin report an increased year-round need for food assistance as citizens struggle with unemployment and the loss of medical insurance, a shortage of affordable housing, and high utility costs.