Princeton Hunger Banquet a Big Success

To the Editor:

The Princeton Hunger Banquet held on September 20 at Hinds Plaza was a success. 150 people attended, all committed to the well being of our children in the Princeton school system. The Banquet was a unique opportunity to participate in meals segregated into three sections, that being for high end, middle income and low resource. The conversation around each table was lead by Hun students and the discourse concerned the awareness of food insecurity in our town, the steps we are taking to alleviate the need and ideas as to how to improve the process.

The Hunger Banquet supported the two-year old Send Hunger Packing Princeton initiative. The initiative is a venture that includes three entities: Princeton Human Services, Mercer Street Friends and the Princeton School System. Providing a driving force is Human Services, maintaining the funds and providing the food packs is the non profit, Mercer Street Friends and overseeing the logistics of picking up the food and delivering it is the Princeton School System. To date, over 41,000 supplemental weekend meals have been delivered.

The Hunger Banquet was a large undertaking for an organization that comprises of only volunteers and an organization where most of its members are gainfully employed elsewhere. It is with tremendous gratitude that we thank all the volunteers, the participants and the care and empathy exhibited by all from the Princeton Community who attended.

Thank you,

Ross Wishnick
Chair, Send Hunger Packing Princeton