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Local nursery school works to feed families during the coronavirus pandemic



Hunger is the hidden companion of Covid-19, striking hardest at those who have service jobs that have been eliminated or cut back due to the pandemic.

Among Princeton’s warriors fighting hunger is the staff of Princeton Nursery School, a non-profit that educates and feeds the children of working families in Mercer County who live below the poverty line. The school is asking for help from the public to continue that mission.

“For our families, the effects of the pandemic are really starting to have an impact,” said Rose Wong, executive director of the school. “Seventy percent of the families we serve have been laid off and are struggling financially.”

Princeton Nursery School gave ShopRite gift cards and food provided by Send Hunger Packing Princeton to families when the school closed on March 13. But the board and leadership at the school knew then that it was only a temporary solution, and that the need for food would continue.   

Princeton Nursery School is accepting donations through its website, with plans to offer food support to their families each Wednesday for the duration of the pandemic.

Food supplies from the Arm in Arm mobile food pantry have helped bolster their supplies, along with donations of cereal and other non-perishables from local residents. The Meeting House, Princeton’s newest restaurant, donated hot meals to the Princeton Nursery School families this week, with plans to do so again next Wednesday.

“Everyone is pitching in however they can,” Wong said.

Donations made through website are tax-deductible, she said. But the most important thing is the children.

“Mostly we want to see their smiling faces back again.”

Make donations at princetonnurseryschool.org or send a message to pnskids@gmail.com.

Fresh fruit for children and their families.
Food donations for nursery school families.
Food distribution day is each Wednesday.
Bags of groceries for families this Wednesday. About 70 percent of the nursery school children’s parents have been laid off because of the COVID-19 crisis.