It runs its 5 millionayear business, but for taking otherwise unproductive members of society off the streets and putting them to work baking up a storm for a clientele that includes some of new yorks best restaurants. What also makes this bakery different is that the dough they work with produces some of the dough that supports a foundation for the needy. Welcome to 60 minutes on cnbc. Im steve kroft. In this edition, scott pelley reports on hard times in a small midwestern town, and later, bob simons story on a yonkers, new york, bakery that became a role model for social activism and Small Business success. We begin with the plight of wilmington, ohio. When president spoke of the winter of our hardship in his inaugural address of 2009, no one understood it better than the people in wilmington. They were in the grip of a brutal series of layoffs at dhl, the air shipping company, at a time when claims for Unemployment Benefits in the u. S. Were the highest in nearly 30 years. In december 2008, just before all the speeches and parties of inauguration day, scott pelley headed to ohio to find out what questions the families in wilmington were asking. Are we going to lose our home . You know, are we going to be able to pay our property taxes . What are were gonna do for insurance . What are were gonna do for food . You know, and these are questions that youd never think that youd ask yourself, you know. And now theyre discussions in the home. Bear hug, big. [grunting] i love you, buddy. Mike omachearley is losing the job that helps support four children and a grandson. They always say that god closes a door, he opens another one. We have faith that he will. Faith is what sustains wilmington now. Settled by quakers 200 years ago, its a community with such an allamerican look, that it seems like a movie set. About 12,000 people live here, and many, like omachearley, work in the last industry youd expect in a laidback town. In 1980 airborne express turned wilmingtons abandoned air force base into a hub for overnight shipping. Dhl 934, wilmington tower. 8,000 people found work at what they call the air park. Then, in 2003, a German Company, dhl, bought airborne in an effort to win a big piece of the u. S. Market. It didnt work. The merger was rocky. There were service interruptions. Customers left. And with the economic crash, dhl was losing 6 million a day in the u. S. Layoffs started coming by the hundreds. Is everybody a thursday layoff . Everybody got laid off on thursday . Most everybody. People who have worked here for decades found themselves in dhlsponsored meetings learning about unemployment. We could tell you what we did on a daily basis, but you wouldnt believe it. You know, boxes in a big container, and itll weigh 800 pounds. You push it out the door through 8 inches of snow and push it up on a barge, and we were idiots enough that we did it by ourselves. We worked as a team, and we had a good friend right alongside of us. Youre losing a lot more than a job. Our friends. Its crazy. Youll never understand it. But we loved it. I remember people with scarves breathing through ice, and just unreal, eyelashes frozen. And i started in 81, and when you worked, you worked. Why werent we bailed out . Dhl is spending 260 million on severance pay and Health Insurance that will keep many workers going for several months, but there is a feeling in town that the German Company wrecked a successful American Business and wiped out thousands of jobs. I was educated here, wilmington city schools, and then at wilmington college. And now youre the mayor. And now im the mayor. There were 576 hourly employees. For months, mayor david raizk has been getting layoff notices. By federal law, companies have to notify local government when layoffs are coming, and raizk is getting a new letter from dhl every week or so adding a few hundred at a time to the growing list of lost jobs. Its got classifications and numbers on it, but theres not names and addresses and who their wife or their family or their children are, and so you look at these, and at the end of the day, you think, thats 800 and some people, folks, live here, work here, you know . The mayor told us one out of three households has a Family Member working at the air park. You are what people around here call an air park family. Absolutely. Angela and john peka are raising four children on two air park salaries. Angela started at airborne express when she was 19. Now as a supervisor, she walks laidoff workers to the company gate and takes their i. D. Badges away. I escorted five individuals out today, and last week i think i escorted three. Whats the last thing you say to them . I tell them that i wish them the best and its been a pleasure working with them, and it has been a pleasure working with every one of them, because theyre a great bunch of people, and they deserve so much better than this. [ticking] coming up, hard times and tough choices. I just cant afford my house. I cant afford the payment. And i had to look at, you know, trying to just feed my family, my kids. Thats my priority. When was the last time you made a house payment . Its been three months ago. Thats right ahead when 60 minutes on cnbc returns. [ticking] its a brand new start. Your chance to rise and shine. With centurylink as your trusted technology partner, you can do just that. With our visionary cloud infrastructure, Global Broadband network and Custom Communications solutions, your business is more reliable secure agile. And with responsive, dedicated support, we help you shine every day of the week. 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[ female announcer ] if you cant afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. For a town as small as wilmington, ohio, the impact of the dhl layoffs is like the trauma of katrina without the physical damage. People like to say their jobs drive them crazy, but for many, work keeps them sane. On november 2, 2003, my son was killed over the skies of fallujah in a chinook helicopter that was shot down, and he died with 16 other soldiers. In iraq. Yes. At that time, mike omachearley was working at a plant, making parts for new cars. And the outgoing Vice President from airborne express, he knew i was having some problems, and he said, yeah, we need bus drivers. Come on back out. The job at dhl, after his death, meant a lot to you. Yes. I was working on a machining line at a factory, and all i could see was his face, all day long. And it was killing me inside. And this job meant that i could see different people and talk to people and kind of become a human. [chime music] by christmas, the mayor had received 14 layoff letters and 3,000 people were out of work. 5,000 were still on the job at dhl, but things were getting bleak for them too. About this time, a lot of people in the air park began to see their schedules cut. Instead of working eight hours a day, they were working four, and of course, that cut their income by half. They werent unemployed; they were underemployed. And it turns out, in this country, that the number of people who are underemployed is roughly the same as those who have no job at all. Combine the numbers, call it the suffering index, and it comes to about 13 nationwide. It is certain to get worse. Gerri lynn thomas and bruce mckee saw their hours cut in half. I just cant afford my house. I cant afford the payment. And i had to look at, you know, trying to just feed my family, my kids. Thats my priority. When was the last time you made a house payment . Its been three months ago. You start stocking up on groceries. You buy an extra can of soup or something or toilet paper, package of toilet paper, Peanut Butter, stuff that you can stock in your cabinets and and stuff in your freezer. Youve been building a stockpile of food. Yes, so you just have to start doing, and you do without things, and. Your son drops out of college early. You just do what you have to do. He dropped out of college . Yeah, we had to we had to pull him. He didnt go the fall and winter sessions this year. We dont have the money. Did you go to college . No. Your husband . No. So this was your dream. Oh, yeah, it was my dream for my kids to have better than i had, and now theyre not going to. Dreams are closing on south street, as one layoff creates another. I think one in five Small Businesses will fail, or could fail. Mayor david raizk also worries about what happens when thousands of people lose their Health Insurance. Approximately 8 million worth of revenue for our local hospital was derived from the insurance. Now, if you take away that 8 million, plus how much charity care is gonna increase because people dont have insurance, you could put the hospital out of business. And you think about that. Our whole staff had a meeting, and they said that they would take a pay cut. In town meetings, businesses are begging for help. U. S. Senator Sherrod Brown is asking for 100 million in federal aid for distressed communities all around the country, and hes trying to get dhl to at least donate the air park to the city. Theres hurt. Theres a sense of betrayal. Betrayal is a strong word. Dhl came in and made promises, and i dont think they lived up to their side of the bargain. Thats the past. We cant dwell on that. We need to move forward. Dhl, we hope, is going to help us with the air park. In the meantime, the Sugartree Ministry soup kitchen is expanding. Were actually Building Remodeling our room over here, adding 200 more seats. That would be about double what youre doing now. Exactly, we should be able to feed about 350 people a day. You can talk about possible medical options. Dhl workers in their meetings just heard that the state Unemployment Benefit Fund went broke last week. The federal government rushed in with an emergency loan of 500 million just to keep the checks coming. The feds are also spending 4 million here to train workers in computer skills, but that doesnt mean there will be jobs. The laidoff workers are guaranteed access to Health Insurance for a year and a half under a federal law called cobra, but theres a catch. But theres a catch. We got the cobra, and it was gonna be, like, a little over 1,500 a month. Thats a lot of money. For my healthcare. Well, you know, my unemployments gonna be 200 a week. Thats not even gonna make a dent. When youre looking forward now, what questions are on your mind . Where we gonna go to next . Where youre gonna go to next. Yeah, basically. We got two families living in my house right now, my husband, mike, and my youngest daughter and her husband and a little baby and another one on the way. They cant make it on their own, and we cant make it. And scotty will have to answer the question. John peka may have a dhl job in another city, but they cant sell the house in this market. Angela, the dhl supervisor, is so worried that shes been looking for work too. Not one callback . No. How many places have you applied at this point, would you say, roughly . I would say between 35 and 40. And ive been applying for everything, for everything, in retail, in supervisor positions, warehousing positions. I dont think anythings beneath me to do, so. But i still havent received any callbacks. Three weeks later, angela, who spent months walking laidoff to the gate, found herself among them. Today is my last day. Gonna be surrendering my badge to my manager today after 18 years. Its a littleim 37, so thats almost half of my life ive been there. So its real now. Mmhmm, yeah. And i see they took your badge. Yeah. What are you thinking . [sighs] i just cant believe its over. Im not gonna see a lot of these people again. And with his job as a dhl bus driver ending. [pounding] mike omachearley is relying on himself. Hes turning a hobby into a business, making engraved hunting knives for collectors. Im an oldschool kind of guy, and im looking at, maybe, like, on tuesday nights, were gonna have no electricity tuesday nights. Were gonna light the oil lamps and play checkers and read books by the candlelight and just talk to each other, and maybe well become a tighter family through it. Dhl will shut down all its u. S. Shipping except international service. Altogether, about 10,000 people are losing their jobs. Call it ground zero. Wilmington is ground zero. Weve got to get back to being america, because right now were losing sight of what my son died for and what those other 16 soldiers died for. Were losing sight of it. We need to fight hard to get it back. Wilmington, ohio, is exactly the kind of town that washington hoped to rescue with stimulus spending, cash for clunkers, and mortgage relief programs. A year after his first visit, scott pelley returned to wilmington to see if the town and its residence were emerging from a long recession. More from wilmington when 60 minutes on cnbc returns in a moment. [ticking] [ male announcer ] you wait all year for summer. This summer was definitely worth the wait. Summers best event from cadillac. Let summer try and pass you by. Lease this allnew cadillac ats for around 299 per month or purchase for 0 apr for 60 months. Come in now for the best offers of the model year. Help the gulf recover, andnt to learn from what happenedg goals so we could be a better, safer energy company. 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Whatever youre looking for expedia has more ways to help you find yours. because what you dont know can hurt you. Urance, what if you didnt know that its smart to replace washingmachine hoses every five years . What if you didnt know that you might need extra coverage for more expensive items . And what if you didnt know that teen drivers are four times more likely to get into an accident . sup the more you know, the better you can plan for whats ahead. Talk to farmers and get smarter about your insurance. We are farmers bum pa dum, bum bum bum bum [ticking] by the end of 2 the so called Great Recession had destroyed more than 7 million jobs, and that was just the half of it. Millions of people had their hours cut to parttime or had quit looking for work altogether. That combined number came to 17 of the american workforce. Pockets of severe unemployment all across the country included places like wilmington, ohio. Scott pelley first reported on the towns plight in december of 2008 when its major employer dhl was laying off thousands of employees. A year later, he went back to wilmington to get an idea of what it was going to take to bring the country back from the long recession. [auctioneer shouting] in wilmington, two days ago, 114,000. 59 homes went to the auction block. The struggle to make the mortgage or work things out at the bank ended in foreclosure. Sold, 141,000. Cold in here now. Its cold. Its cold. The electrics shot off. The gas is shut off. Jim curtis home was auctioned on friday. It went into foreclosure after his payments doubled and then he lost his job. Curtis moved his wife and his boys out well before the auction to get it over with. When you received that foreclosure notice. Ugh. What did you think . Uh. I let my family down. Um. Ive always been kind of taughtim sorry about that. Ive always been kind of taught to stand on my own two feet and that im responsible for taking care of them. And its. Its tough on us. Curtis built a career 24 years at airborne express, later bought by dhl. The couriers national hub was wilmingtons old air base, what they now call the air park. Curtis managed more than 100 people in the Hazardous Materials department. But when dhl express closed its domestic delivery service, 10,000 people lost their jobs. When we visited last december, dhl was counseling workers on unemployment and retraining, and like many, laura walker was scared. To me, it was like being on the titanic. Its not only filling with water; were going down. She grabbed at every lifeline. In the year since we met her, she improvised jobs and went to classes in medical records management, a new field where she might find work. There were new textbooks to buy. [laughing] there goes all my money. An oven to fix for a Side Business baking cakes. Okay, that aint gonna work. And a job at a farm supply for which shes paid in bales of hay. Youre getting pay with hay . Im getting paid with hay. The hay is for horses she still has from the days when her late husband raised them on the farm shes struggling to keep. She had to put two of them down recently. They were old and sick, and she couldnt afford to care for them anymore. You look out in the field, and you think,