An update on Dane County’s COVID-19 response efforts

Between March 1 and April 28, calls to United Way’s 211 line relating to food insecurity jumped 300%. During that same period, approximately 30,000 Dane County residents applied for unemployment. While many unknowns about the COVID-19 pandemic still exist, I want to share what Dane County is doing to provide relief to those who are struggling.

To help those facing food insecurity, Dane County is giving $3 million to Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin to acquire food for Dane County food pantries over the next 90 days. This effort will bring producers and consumers together while resupplying shelves of area food banks.

Local businesses have taken a significant hit over the past few months. To help, Dane County is putting $10.8 million toward its Small Business Pandemic Support Grant Program for use by local businesses for employee retention and to mitigate losses. Dane County has partnered with Dane Buy Local to administer these grants, and awards have already been dispersed.

Dane County and the City of Madison have been working tirelessly to protect our most vulnerable residents. To date, Dane County has invested more than $1.8 million and helped over 350 individuals experiencing homelessness relocate to more than 180 hotel rooms. Limiting the spread of coronavirus is Dane County’s top priority, and these efforts have helped us flatten the curve.

Dane County and the City of Madison are amending our 2020 budgets to boost funding by nearly $700,000 for Public Health Madison & Dane County. This will fund contact tracing, disease prevention and community education efforts needed to transition parts of the local economy into reopening and put us on a path to recovery.

I want to thank Dane County residents for their support and cooperation as we combat the spread of COVID-19. After the state supreme court struck down the governor’s Safer at Home orders, we implemented our own local orders designed to keep our residents safe. We’re in this together, and we’ll come through this together.