Monica Wahlberg has been submitting unemployment claims for the last 14 weeks, but she hasn’t seen a cent yet.
After losing her dream job as the director of a Madison, Wisconsin, community arts center in June, Wahlberg was able to carry on for a while without unemployment benefits, thanks to a severance package and her savings. Wahlberg, 45, held out hope that she would be able to find another job in her field, especially since she was asked to do phone and video interviews for a range of potential employers.
But just getting by became more and more challenging as the months dragged on and her pantry supplies dried up along with her savings. After her church sponsored a pop-up food pantry over the summer, her pastor finally asked if she needed some of the leftover supplies. “I appreciated that. I realized I hadn’t had any of these canned goods for a while,” Wahlberg says.
3rd_Party_Yesterday