Camden residents who own small food-based businesses have a new source of loans to maintain or grow their businesses: the Camden Food Fund. The Fund will provide capital to small new and existing food-based business owners who live in Camden, face obstacles to accessing capital to maintain or grow their businesses, and participate in or help to advance a healthy, equitable local food economy.
In an initial pilot phase, loans will range from $500 to $15,000, depending on the business’s use of the loan funds. The Fund prefers to support for-profit entities initially, but will consider non-profit investments with strong impact alignment. Learnings from the pilot phase will inform future decisions and financing tools from the Fund.
The Camden Food Fund is housed with the Community Foundation of South Jersey (CFSJ). The Fund’s launch is made possible by a multi-year grant to the Community Foundation from The Campbell’s Foundation. Campbell’s will also provide the first round of capital for lending.
Using a resident-centered approach to leadership, the Fund was designed in partnership with a Community Advisory Board (CAB) which set strategy and guided the design of the Fund to meet the needs of food entrepreneurs. The CAB will direct resources to support the Fund’s mission and will be supported by a volunteer Impact Investment Committee with the expertise to assess the financial viability and social impact of potential investments.
The Fund’s initial investments are character-based loans. The pilot structure challenges the ways in which credit and financial information is too often the sole basis for loan underwriting.
The Camden Food Fund envisions that historically excluded food entrepreneurs will have improved access to funding and opportunities that contribute to the success and growth of their business and the Camden community. “I have heard about organizations and programs doing similar work, but it is a completely different endeavor to be able to actively participate in creating a new way of doing business. Most importantly to be able to do it in a community so close to my heart.” said Patricia Pena, the President of the Community Advisory Board.
Andy Fraizer, CFSJ Executive Director said, “This Fund work began with trust-building with neighbors, evolved to learning together, and is moving now to provide capital consistent with resident-centered strategy. The CFSJ team are grateful to be in relationship with CAB members and the support of The Campbell’s Foundation to work at the speed of community.”