New Soup Kitchen to Open at First Baptist Church in Princeton on May 5th

The First Baptist Church will begin serving dinner Tuesday nights starting May 5.
The First Baptist Church will serve dinner on Tuesday nights starting May 5.

The Trenton Area Soup Kitchen will open a second Princeton satellite location next month in partnership with the First Baptist Church on John Street.

Starting on May 5, dinner will be served at First Baptist each Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.The Princeton United Methodist Church serves dinners on Wednesday evenings.

“TASK is very excited to begin a partnership with the First Baptist Church of Princeton,” Micai said. “This will be our second satellite site in Princeton and ninth overall in the Mercer County area. TASK expects to serve more than 250,000 meals this year to our neighbors that are experiencing hunger insecurity.”

The newest location was organized to accommodate schedules for residents in need, and to satisfy a high demand for the program in Princeton, said Rev. Carlton Branscomb, pastor of the First Baptist Church.

First Baptist expects to serve around 50 meals a week in the early stages of the program, Branscomb said, and he expects demand to grow as more residents learn about the program. Meals will be delivered by TASK and served by volunteers.

Branscomb said the project had been in the back of his mind for several years, and that he was very excited when a TASK representative suggested a partnership. The church previously developed a relief fund for children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic in Malawi and recently raised money for Liberians suffering from Ebola.

“We needed a strong domestic program where we’re meeting the needs of the community that we live in too,” Branscomb said.

Branscomb said the program requires about five volunteers a week, and that both church members and other community members have been extremely helpful. Organizers hope the program will be simple, have a positive impact and be sustainable longterm, Branscomb said.

“We’re hoping those who are in need will come out and get a nice meal for themselves in an environment where they are treated with respect that is non-judgmental,” he said.

Although Princeton’s median household income was more than $100,000 between 2009 and 2013, 6.1 percent of the town’s population lives at or below the national poverty level, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This translates to roughly 1,700 citizens living on an annual income of $11,670 or less.

“I always knew that Princeton has a population that is under-served. I just didn’t know it was as many as the statistics are stating,” Branscomb said.

Most people look at the median income of a town without considering the composition of incomes, local statistician Ralph Widner said. Certain people with very high incomes push the median up, Widner explained, while the bottom 20 percent of households in Mercer County is second only to Trenton in earning the state’s lowest incomes.

“There is a lot of mythology about poverty in Princeton,” Widner said, noting that the poverty level for Latinos is the highest at 13.5 percent. The percentage is probably even higher — a significant portion of Latinos living below the poverty line are undocumented, further preventing accurate data collection, Widner said. About 8 percent of the population in Princeton Latino, and a quarter of the Latinos living in Princeton are students at Princeton University.

Princeton launched a Send Hunger Packing program a few years ago to provide meals for schoolchildren who receive free lunches over the weekend. Mayor Liz Lempert said programs like TASK are essential to the Princeton community.

“I think there’s been a growing awareness among people in the community that we do have residents who are going hungry, and I think at the same time the feeling that, as a community, we shouldn’t be letting that happen here,” she said.

One Comment

  1. Actually, certain people with high incomes push the mean up. Only if there are a lot of them, would it matter to the median. The mean would be a very misleading statistic to use to try to understand poverty – the median is not a whole lot better though. If 51% of Princeton households made over $1 million dollars, the median would be over $1 million, but the other 49% could be all under the poverty level and you’d never know. Looking at the the distribution is what matters, therefore, knowing what the level of income that defines the top of the bottom quintile range (the 20% mentioned) would get you closer to understanding poverty. But that still wouldnt give you any information on just how poor those people are. If 6% are below poverty, the 20% range might be $0-50,000. So even the income quintiles can be misleading. The % living under the poverty level is the only number here that matters, although, to the extent that they are living around more people that are far from poverty might mean that they live in a high cost area and thus, there income (once adjusted for relative purchasing power) may make them even more poor in terms of living standards. Just goes to show that the standard metrics for income discussion are designed to obscure what is happening out there. Convenient for some, not helpful for others.

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