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The Pilgrims had the right idea about being thankful. When a period of relief finally came from their hardships and they had enough to food to eat - and food to spare - they shared it with their neighbors.

It is a good example to us, who have the opportunity to do the same thing today by sharing what we have with our neighbors through the Iowa County Food Pantry.

During this time of financial hardship, there are a sobering number of people in our own community who are in need of our surplus food items. Boxes, cans and packages stockpiled on home shelves or in closets for a rainy day could be used now to relieve a family's hunger. For them, the rainy day is here.

During the first ten months of this year, the food pantry in Dodgeville served 1,140 Iowa County families. Of these people, 2,112 were adults and 1,225 were children. It is emotionally very difficult for many of the recipients to admit they cannot feed their families and to actually come for help, according to food pantry volunteer staff.

A landmark 2010 study released by Second Harvest Foodbank serving southwest Wisconsin reports an unprecedented need for food. Nearly 141,000 people, 43% who are children, receive emergency food each year through the foodbank's partner pantries, meal sites and shelters. This represents an 83% increase since the Hunger in Southwestern Wisconsin report of 2006.

Nationally, an estimated 5.7 million people receive emergency food assistance each week from a food pantry, soup kitchen or other agency served by one of Feeding America's more than 200 food banks (including Second Harvest). This is a 27% increase over 2006.

The need for food is an unrelenting fact of life, ongoing 365 days and nights a year. People are not only hungry on holidays. The day after the huge Thanksgiving dinner, we will be hungry again. We will continue to be hungry three times a day.

Holiday food drives are greatly appreciated at the food pantry. Summertime, surprisingly, is also one of the most needed periods for food donations. During summer months, the USDA trucks that deliver surplus commodities to the schools do not come - and they do not come to the Food Pantry, either. At the same time, families have a greater demand for food because kids are home 24 hours a day. Some children who depend on the school lunch for their only filling meal each day do not get that meal during the summer.

"It is morally reprehensible that we live in the wealthiest nation in the world where one in six people are struggling to make choices between food and other basic necessities," commented the president of Feeding America. "These are choices that no one should have to make, but particularly households with children."

So on Thursday as we sit down to a table that is creaking under the weight of a huge turkey and other delicacies, let's be very thankful for those blessings. And then let's go one step further by sharing some of our bounty with the people whose tables are not quite as full.