To the Editor:

By the time that this pandemic is past, we will have many to thank for their efforts to get us all through in one piece. I live in Princeton and work at Penn Medicine Princeton Healthcare Center. We have seen the tremendous impact of COVID-19 at the hospital. Health care workers have been widely acknowledged and thanked as frontline workers, but I am writing today to thank the many, many other essential workers who have kept us all going. These include restaurant owners and staff who are providing drive up or delivered meals to all of us, gas stations, truckers, mail carriers, and delivery workers. The outpouring of community restaurant support for health care workers at the hospital is overwhelming.

After shelter, there is nothing we all need more than food. I want to especially single out grocery stores, their operators, and workers for thanks during this crisis. My own local store, McCaffrey’s, is a shining example, and it was after shopping early this morning that I decided to write.

McCaffrey’s has done a great job keeping the shelves stocked and customers moving through the store. They have given us all the confidence that we don’t have to buy in panic worrying that what is on the shelf today won’t be back again for some time. As we shelter in our homes, we need reassurance that the structures that keep our society in one piece still exist. Fortunately, they do, through the daily work of so many people.

Donald F. Denny Jr., MD
Nassau Street