THOMASVILLE, North Carolina - July 3, 2013 - It is difficult to ignore the six abandoned and crumbling factories that dot the landscape surrounding Main Street in Thomasville, North Carolina. Less than a half mile away from the faded storefronts, children race in the shadows of broken windowpanes, past the empty lumberyards that once brought the town to life.

More than 100 years ago, Thomasville was the furniture industry hub of North Carolina. It was the type of town that created generational jobs where grandfathers, fathers and sons could each work and prosper, knowing that the opportunity for employment would be there for years to come.

In the past 15 years, however, the town of roughly 27,000 people has lost more than 5,000 manufacturing jobs. Companies like century-old Thomasville Furniture Industries, Inc., Duracell, and others downsized, relocated or closed.

From 2007-2010 alone, unemployment spiked from 5.5% to 13.5%. Today, with an unemployment rate of 9.1%, Thomasville still ranks higher than the state and nationwide averages.

The town’s economic hardship has since translated into a hunger problem. It touches those who cannot find work, those who are sick, single-parent households, traditional households, the elderly, and children.

Sparse food donations, unapproved grants, and inadequate funding have made it difficult to provide enough food for the growing number of needy families.

The cyclical problem of unemployment and hunger has turned this once-prosperous community into a hopeless existence of hand-to-mouth poverty.