To the Editor:

Four years in Princeton and 82,000 delivered supplemental meals later and Send Hunger Packing Princeton (SHUPP) is even more passionate, enthusiastic, creative, and driven to continue to grow the program. It started as part of a national movement to provide weekend meals to kids who live in a food insecure home. The requirements to participate were minimal, a simple request to participate was the sole qualification. There were and are three main partners: Princeton Human Services’ offspring Send Hunger Packing Princeton, Mercer Street Friends, and the Princeton School System. And for the same reasons the program started, the program has grown.

Today, in addition to the regularly delivered food bags consisting of two kid-friendly breakfasts and lunches, SHUPP has expanded the program to better meet the needs of our constituents. We now provide an additional, more robust package of food each month for the whole family. Summer break, which is more logistically challenging, is now a large part of the SHUPP mission. For some kids that means meals throughout the summers Monday through Friday. For others it means the continuation of weekend meal packs. And for those we can reach, it means the addition of fresh produce. And starting this summer, a brand new breakfast program is being launched for the benefit of all kids under the age of 18, a free meal at the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church.

This Send Hunger Packing Princeton Initiative could not exist without the generosity of the Princeton Community. Each year, in September, at Hinds Plaza, community members gather to celebrate and raise money to enable the program to not only continue but to grow. This year, as last year, the theme will be Fill the Bowls. The event features the work of local potter, Adam Welch, who will once again create custom bowls for the event. All who participate will receive one.

The benefits are clear. No one argues the point that “a child should be hungry for knowledge and not hungry for breakfast.” That’s SHUPP’s mission and thanks to our community, that’s what SHUPP’s been able to do.

Robert Rabner For The SHUPP Family

Christopher Drive