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Viking food
County MVP North runner Emma Faivre looks to make the most of her senior year
MCCC hosts one of the area’s best-kept dining secrets BY JOE EMANSKI
BY JUSTIN FEIL In fourth grade, Emma Faivre beat her gym teacher in a sprint. “I just passed him at the end,” Faivre said. “There was a lot of controversy, but most of the kids said I won.” Faivre leaves no controversy anymore on the track. The High School North senior was Most Valuable Player of the indoor track and field Mercer County Championships on Jan. 26 after repeating as 400-meter champion, finishing third in both the 55 meters and 200 meters, and anchoring the second place 4x400 relay. She accounted for 30 points for the second-place Knight girls team. North also had Aditi Parekh win the 55-meter hurdles and Sydney Abitanto win the pole vault. “Emma’s focus this year has been great,” said Matt Warren, the North sprints coach and girls cross country head coach. “She has a good kind of senioritis, like you’re running out of time and you want to make something happen.” Eight years have passed between Faivre’s memorable elementary race in gym class and this year’s county performance, and in that time she has fostered her talents into becomSee FAIVRE, Page 8
jemanski@communitynews.org
West Windsor resident Chris Cirkus, who ran the West Windsor Farmers Market for almost nine years, is the new manager of the Trenton Farmers Market.
(Farmers) market leader Long-time West Windsor market manager takes over Trenton Farmers Market BY SCOTT MORGAN That Chris Cirkus took the helm at the Trenton Farmers Market shouldn’t be too surprising. She’s made a full-time career out of managing multiple part-time farmers markets in the area. So when it came
time to find a successor to Jack Ball—the manager of the Trenton Farmers Market in Lawrence Township for 39 years— Cirkus jumped at the chance... to find one. About a year ago, Ball fell ill. He’s feeling a lot better, but at the time, the 74-year-old felt it would be best to step down. So Gary Mount, owner of Terhune Orchards and a member of the Trenton Farmers Market board, called Cirkus and Beth Feehan to help find a successor. Cirkus managed the West
Windsor Farmers Market (and still does) and Feehan used to. The pair also co-managed the 31 & Main Farmers Market at the College of New Jersey. So the Trenton Farmers Market board brought them in as consultants, thanks in part to their steep connections in the farmers market game. “We found a few candidates and they hired someone,” Cirkus said. “But the woman declined the position just before she was supposed to start.” Around the beginning of See CIRKUS, Page 6
This Summer Have Fun Learning With
One of the best-kept dining secrets in central New Jersey can be found on Monday nights in room ES111 of the Engineering Systems Building at Mercer County Community College. In that low-slung brick building, for eight weeks a semester, culinary students make and serve three-course dinners to the public. Any hungry person with a reservation can sit down for a starter, main course and dessert, for as little as $11. The venue is called the Viking Café. By creating a restaurant setting in the classroom, Mercer gives students in its Applied Kitchen Skills class a hands-on opportunity to learn how a restaurant functions. Rising chefs and bakers work under the watchful eye of chef instructor Frank Benowitz, a member of the college’s Hotel, Restaurant and Institution Management and Culinary Arts program. The Viking Café also gives diners an opportunity to enjoy a thoughtfully prepared meal at a fraction of what it would cost in a for-profit restaurant. And yet they can expect a meal worth that price and more. The students may be learning, but that doesn’t mean they are inexperienced. Many work or have See VIKING, Page 10
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