TAKE WHAT YOU NEED: This SHUPP community garden at the Princeton YMCA is among more than 10 in town that invite anyone who needs produce to pick what is ripe.

By Anne Levin

At a meeting of Princeton’s Human Services Department with some community stakeholders a decade ago, the topic of food insecurity among Princeton children was raised. Asked how many youngsters would qualify for that classification, most people thought there were about 10, or maybe 20.

“The answer was 300 to 400 kids. Everybody’s mouth dropped,” said Ross Wishnick, chairman of Human Services at the time. “This really was not acceptable. Because we have sufficient wealth in this town to solve it.”

That gathering was the seed of Send Hunger Packing Princeton (SHUPP), a nonprofit founded by Wishnick to provide food to anyone in the school system who asks. Wishnick and the many volunteers who have assisted will gather at Hinds Plaza on Sunday, October 8 from 12 to 2 p.m. for a 10th anniversary celebration. The public is invited to stop by and learn about SHUPP’s programs, which include free community gardens, a hydroponic learning system, the stocking of local pantries, and a weekly produce program that serves nearly 200 families.

Mercer Street Friends, the Trenton-based nonprofit and one of the largest food banks in New Jersey, was an early model and partner for SHUPP, following the model of Send Hunger Packing, a national program with the goal of filling kids’ backpacks with non-perishable food.

“We’ve been growing over the years,” Wishnick said. “We were early in providing food for kids in school. Now, lots of others do it. Today, I’m happy to say, there are eight to 10 organizations providing food at points of contact.”

SHUPP started with shelf-stable food, which was placed in elementary school participants’ backpacks to bring home as weekend supplements. This morphed to pre-made meals during the pandemic, with help from Princeton University and other sources. Soon, fresh vegetables and fruit were added to the mix.

“We surveyed people, and they said that they’d really like to have fresh produce,” Wishnick said. “It has become one of our main initiatives.”

When the pandemic began, Wishnick got a call from former Superintendent of Schools Steve Cochran asking if SHUPP could partner with the district to help families that relied on the schools for many of their children’s meals. “We said yes, absolutely. We became the sole partner of the schools to help provide food for families,” he said. “It was actually quite humbling to get that call from him.”

Last year, programming at SHUPP was expanded to include support of community gardens. The goal was not only to provide fresh produce, but to teach people how to grow their own food. The first garden was at the YMCA; there are now more than 10 throughout town. SHUPP also provided building materials for four raised garden beds at Princeton High School and a shed for storing equipment. Hydroponic gardens were purchased by SHUPP for use in the public schools and at the YMCA to grow crops indoors.

The program sustains itself through grants from local institutions, support from churches, individuals, and various university organizations. Primary among them is Princeton University, cited by Wishnick as a major player from the beginning.

“When I went to Kristin [Appelget, head of the University’s Office of Community and Regional Affairs] and said we have this idea, and it needs to be funded, she said they were in, right away,” said Wishnick. “She thought this was an important thing the University could get behind. And after all these years, it’s an important part of what they do.”

The celebration on Sunday will include talks by board members about what SHUPP does. Participants are asked to bring shelf-stable food to help restock local pantries.

“It never occurred to me that this idea would still be hanging in there, still helping out the community, 10 years later,” said Wishnick. “Most things like this come and go. It’s hard to sustain.”