Camden Food Fund

Camden Food Fund is sponsored by Community Foundation of South Jersey (with a multiyear grant from the Campbell's Foundation). The Camden Food Fund provides capital to new and existing food-based business owners who reside in the city of Camden and participate in or help to advance a healthy, equitable local food economy.

Camden Food Fund Makes Initial Four Loans | Community Foundation of South Jersey Community Foundation of South Jersey Camden Food Fund Makes Initial Four Loans The Camden Food Fund has made its first four investments into Camden city food businesses participating in or helping to advance a healthy, equitable local food economy.

These four loans are part of a pilot to learn the best way to reach and impact the needs of food entrepreneurs in Camden. Using a resident-centered approach to leadership, the Community Foundation of South Jersey staff worked with the community advisory board 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 Fund’s initial investments are character-based loans. Character based-loans go beyond a credit score and look at the whole picture of a person’s ability to pay back a loan.

The four businesses to receive funds are: El Burger Bar Restaurant and Catering, a successful brick-and-mortar that had to relocate due to complications with renovating and purchasing their past building, will use the funds to buy all new energy compliant equipment to open in their new location.

The Breakfast Palace, a brick-and-mortar cafe that provides homecooked breakfast and lunch to the community, is expanding to include an outdoor patio area. Exquisite Catering has secured a location to formalize the start up breakfast and lunch take out business in connection with a ghost kitchen space.

Shelpots, a successful Halal brick-and-mortar restaurant that lost their previous location due to the landlord doubling the rent, is using the loans funds to reopen a take out and catering business in Camden. The four entrepreneurs that received funding were provided with access to technical assistance resources.

Additionally, all entrepreneurs that were not advanced to funding for this pilot were offered a one-on-one workshop with a food business coach to help them become loan ready for future funds.

At the celebration event held on January 27th, Samyria Parker of The Breakfast Palace said, “[The Camden Food Fund] is the first [initiative] that decided to take a chance [on me] and I will forever be grateful for you guys because it’s very hard to be in the food industry. ” The Camden Food Fund is housed with the Community Foundation of South Jersey (CFSJ).

The Fund’s launch was made possible by a multiyear grant to the Community Foundation from The Campbell’s Foundation. Campbell’s also provided the first round of capital for these four pilot loans. The Camden Food Fund will launch a second pilot in the spring with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

This funding will increase the maximum loan amount to $50,000 and include a technical assistance program for a targeted eight more entrepreneurs. ⇐ CFSJ Welcomes New Member to the Board of Directors CFSJ Welcomes Three New Members to the Governing Board ⇒