Volume LXXVII, Number 6
Annual “Grand Homes And Gardens” Series at Morven . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Princeton Business Partnership Unveils New Name, Design, Progress . . . . . . . . . . 10 PHS Research Team Competes for Top Prizes in STEM Competition . . . .13 PSO Presents Brahms Piano Concerto . . . . . 16 The 1491s’ Between Two Knees Comes to McCarter . . . . . . . . 17 Austin Stars as PU Men’s Hoops Tops Cornell, Gives Henderson 200th Career Win . . . . . . . . 26 Sophomore Standout Beatty Keys Late Rally As PHS Boys’ Hockey Edges Paul VI. . . . . . 29
Taking A Second Look At Cormac McCarthy’s Amazing New Work . . 15 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-23 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 24 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . 37 Luxury Living . . . . . . . 2-3 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 14 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 25 Obituaries . . . . . . . 34-35 Performing Arts . . . 18-19 Police Blotter . . . . . . . 12 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 34 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6 Valentine’s Day . . . 20-21
www.towntopics.com
Food Donation Act Has Support From Princeton Nonprofit Early last month, President Biden signed the Food Donation Improvement Act (FDIA), legislation to reduce food insecurity and food waste, into law. Among the organizations supporting the bill was Share My Meals, which was founded in Princeton in January 2020 and has since delivered more than 175,000 meals to people in need. Share My Meals was part of a coalition of more than 70 nonprofit and corporate leaders, including WeightWatchers, Grubhub, Food Tank, and Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, to push the bill forward. The nonprofit’s involvement came through a family connection. “A board member of ours is related to a person from WeightWatchers, which is the organization that really set this up,” said Helene Lanctuit, vice president of Share My Meals’ board, who is in charge of food safety protocols, and a consultant for advocacy and sustainability. “So we found out by chance and got in touch, and they were happy to have us. We went to [Washington] D.C. to support it, and it was enacted in December last year.” According to Share My Meals’ website, more than 1.2 million New Jersey residents are food-insecure. At the same time, 1.5 million tons of food are wasted each year across the state, which raises greenhouse gas emissions. The legislation is actually not new — it amends the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act of 1996, broadening and clarifying protections for food donors who might be hesitant about liability for food once it leaves their facility. “Now we can make a more reassuring case to food service providers that donating through Share My Meals is a safe alternative to throwing out perfectly good meals that can help feed families with food insecurity — a win-win for everyone and the environment,” said Isabelle Lambotte, founder of the nonprofit, in a release. It was shortly before the pandemic that Lambotte, who was volunteering at a local food pantry, gathered a group of Princeton residents to start a program where volunteers could recover prepared meals from corporate cafeterias and deliver them to families in need. Two months in, COVID-19 had shut down corporate offices, and the program had to change Continued on Page 12
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Wednesday, February 8, 2023
COVID Wanes, Tripledemic Fears Fade In December, as winter approached, health officials braced for a harrowing combination of spiking COVID-19 variants, an early flu season, and more patients with RSV and other respiratory illnesses than they had seen in recent memory. Media and others warned that the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic would be followed by a “tripledemic.” But no such surge has come to pass. COVID-19 numbers continue to decline. The flu season seems to have peaked. And the early RSV wave has abated. “Good news,” said Penn Medicine Princeton Health (PMPH) Chief Medical Officer Dr. Craig Gronczewski in a February 6 phone conversation. “New Jersey was hit particularly hard with a COVID uptick in December, but in the past four weeks hospitalizations and ER visits have gone down significantly.” He continued, “It also looks like influenza as a disease peaked in early December in New Jersey, and serious illnesses and hospitalizations from RSV have trended down as well. From a respiratory illness standpoint things have been tracking very well in the past four weeks
as far as the emergency department is concerned.” But the news is not all good at PMPH. “We had many fewer COVID cases and hospitalizations than in the previous year, but the number of patients coming to the ER requiring hospitalization actually increased,” said Gronczewski. “I was surprised by the volume of ER visits. The number of patients requiring admission and hospitalization with non-respiratory illnesses was much higher than in years
past. It has been a busier winter than ever. We had to use more hallways for patients than ever before.” Gronczewski suggested that one reason for the influx of hospital patients might be “deferred care,” perhaps an unanticipated consequence of the pandemic. “That’s a lot of what I’m hearing from patients and staff — difficulty in getting access to care or getting diagnostic tests or getting appointments with primary care physicians or with specialists,” he said. Continued on Page 8
HomeFront Will Celebrate Week of Hope With Many Service, Education Opportunities
As HomeFront prepares to celebrate its sixth annual Week of Hope February 13-19, HomeFront CEO Sarah Steward reflected on the growing organization’s work in helping local families break the cycle of poverty. “Hope” is a constant theme. “I see reasons for hope,” she said. “I see challenges, but I do see reasons for hope, and part of that is based on the HomeFront philosophy, which is working family by family. Even when there are big social challenges, I can walk into our
waiting room or into our Family Campus any day and meet dozens of families whose lives are being changed, whose lives are being improved. And that gives me hope that we can tackle this in a big way.” She went on to emphasize the importance of support from the Central New Jersey community. “We know that our community cares deeply for families that have found themselves in difficult times,” she said. “We find so much hope in the volunteers and supporters that give so Continued on Page 10
FOR THE DOGS — AND PEOPLE: Mayor Mark Freda and Council President Mia Sacks, shown cutting the ribbon, were among the dignitaries at the grand opening of the Princeton Community Dog Park in Community Park South on Sunday morning. More than 100 people and 70 dogs were on hand for the festivities. Attendees discuss what the new dog park contributes to the community in this week’s Town Talk on page 6. (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)