Launched in 2022, the Camden Food Fund—a component fund of the Community Foundation of South Jersey (CFSJ)—was established to strengthen economic opportunity, financial security, and food access for residents of Camden. Seeded with investments from Campbell’s Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Fund supports local food entrepreneurs and small business owners through community-focused loans, grants, and technical assistance. The Camden Food Fund is an upstream, systems-oriented approach to addressing food insecurity in one of New Jersey’s most economically challenged cities.
Using a resident-centered approach to leadership, the Community Foundation of South Jersey staff worked with the community advisory board (CAB) to co-design a strategy including business outreach, an accessible application process, and a needed loan product to meet the needs of food entrepreneurs. The Community Advisory Board (CAB), composed of local residents who bring their unique expertise and lived experience to the co-design of the Fund, are key partners. By harnessing their deep understanding of local challenges and opportunities, CAB members play a crucial role in shaping equitable food access solutions and fostering community-driven impact.
The Camden Food Fund works to provide capital to new and existing Camden based food businesses, who have faced obstacles to accessing the capital needed to start and grow their businesses, and who participate in or help to advance a healthy, equitable local food economy. The Fund has a preference for investing in for-profit entities, but will consider nonprofit investments with strong impact alignment. The Camden Food Fund has made its first four investments into Camden food businesses that are part of a pilot to learn the best way to reach and impact the needs of food entrepreneurs in Camden. The Fund aims to learn from the first and second pilots and raise a larger fund to make more loans and grants available to invest in Camden businesses.