Despite current challenges, Tiger student-athletes and staff remain committed to living our values, and finding ways to achieve, serve and lead in their communities. Princeton Athletics staff, in particular, has rallied around the Princeton community, and worked to provide meals to community members in need.
Princeton Athletics formed a summer-long partnership with Meals on Wheels, which saw coaches and staff support a donation campaign, while serving as daily food couriers assisting with the delivery of more than 400 total meals from campus and local corporate partners to community members in need. Many of these meals were prepared directly by Princeton Dining Services as part of the University’s Summer Food and Nutrition Program.
Similarly, Princeton Athletics partnered with the local Princeton YMCA as part of their Summer Food Distribution Effort to deliver food supplies to the greater Princeton community, and staff a weekly drive-thru grocery pickup on-site at the YMCA. In total, the program delivered more than 29,000 pounds of food to 276 households!
Men’s Soccer Head Coach Jim Barlow ’91, who has volunteered with both efforts, offered “With the last few months being filled with a lot of tough news and isolation, I am grateful to the Athletic Department for setting up opportunities to volunteer with the YMCA and Meals on Wheels. I’m energized by the passion and commitment that all of the volunteers and employees have to make life a little better for members of the Princeton community. While we may not have a season, we are blessed with so much. These opportunities reinforce that, and give us a chance to use our time away from the field to give back to a community that has given us so much.”
In addition to helping feed the community, Princeton Athletics has worked to promote racial equality, as Men’s Volleyball Head Coach Sam Shweisky and other coaches and staff worked with local activists and Black Mothers Rising to facilitate Princeton Athletics’ involvement in a Black Lives Matter Equal Rights March and Rally in Princeton on Sunday, July 12.
The march drew over 250 individuals. Among the featured speakers was men’s basketball student-athlete Elijah Barnes ’21 – click here to hear from Elijah and for a recap of the event.
As part of this initiative, Princeton Athletics is thrilled and grateful to announce the Chi Family Fund for Excellence and Inclusion, made possible by the generous gift of PVC Board Member Y.S. Chi ’83 and his family. Click here to learn more on how the fund will support the athletic department in several key areas related to excellence and inclusion, including education, training and programming.
