Camden Food Fund makes microloans to four small businesses, with more to come

Samyria Parker credits “a lot of love from the community” with helping sustain her restaurant, the Breakfast Palace, since it opened last January at 34th and Federal Streets in East Camden.

She also hopes a low-interest microloan from the Camden Food Fund will help grow her business.

Parker was one of four city food entrepreneurs who were approved for loans ranging from $10,000 to $15,000 last November during the pilot phase of a program established by the Community Foundation of South Jersey.

“I’m going to renovate the patio in back for outdoor dining,” said Parker.

The fund was established in 2022 amid continuing concern about access to fresh, healthy, affordable food — as well as business capital — in Camden. About 28% of the city’s 71,000 people live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census.

“We’re developing a second round including as many as eight loans of up to $50,000,″ said Andy Frazier, executive director of the Community Foundation of South Jersey.

“The fund was created through a community-driven process, involving residents who understand the local food system and what the needs are,” he said. “We are working to develop this second pilot in collaboration with our community advisory board.”

As board member Ruth Perez told a gathering to mark the first loans last year, the food fund “supports entrepreneurs of all backgrounds, especially those who have traditionally faced barriers in accessing capital and resources.

“This fund not only boosts the local economy, but also enriches our gastronomic and cultural offerings,” said Perez.

Camden topped the list of 50 local “food deserts” statewide issued by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority in 2022. The list has not been updated, an EDA spokesperson said Friday.

» READ MORE: Supermarkets aren’t the only answer to food insecurity in Camden

Nevertheless, the EDA is investing in food deserts and provided Camden a $125,000 grant “to support preliminary building plans and a market feasibility study to develop a state-of-the-art multipurpose food market, eatery, and indoor farm facility,” the spokesperson said.

Separately from the EDA, the Camden Food Fund was developed under a $1 million multiyear grant from the Campbell’s Foundation, the charitable arm of the Campbell’s Co. The company that introduced condensed canned soups to the world was founded 155 years ago and is still headquartered in Camden.

“We started having conversations about the fund in 2021, and we knew it would take a lot of work to build it over time,” said Kate Barrett, president of the Campbell’s Foundation.

The foundation sees the fund as a community-guided tool to address food insecurity and “close health and wealth gaps by supporting local food businesses,” she said.

The foundation also underwrote the $60,000 cost of the first four pilot loans. Supporting the fund also dovetails with some of Campbell’s other philanthropic efforts in its hometown, including the Full Futures school nutrition program, said Barrett.

Izelle Tomlinson, the owner of Exquisite Catering LLC, has been in operation since October at Karnival Foods, on Haddon Avenue in the city’s Parkside neighborhood. Michel ‘Shelly’ Owen runs ShelPots, her catering firm, from the same space.

Like Parker and Nicole Campbell, who owns El Burger Bar, Tomlinson and Owen are Camden food veterans with deep familial and culinary roots in the city.

“The fund enabled me to get this location, helped me hire an employee, helped me purchase equipment, and even helped me purchase some food,” said Tomlinson, 56, a single father of four daughters.

“But the problem is there are not many [available locations] for people like me to open a restaurant in the city,” he said.

Owen, 44, learned cooking from her father and has five family members helping out at ShelPots. She described the food fund as nourishing a movement Camden.

“It brings us together to get our businesses out there … so we can get out there and feed the community,” she said.

Campbell, who is preparing to move El Burger Bar to a new location on Haddon Avenue, said the food fund loan has enabled her to purchase new and more energy-efficient equipment, as well as find larger quarters.

She said her restaurant is built around the concept of “a healthier twist on burgers and fries, with fresh vegetables” and creative interpretations including “our slammin’ seafood” burger.

Parker said she was especially pleased to be approved for the loan despite an issue she makes it a point to speak frankly about: Having served prison time for a narcotics offense.

In fact, she took her first culinary class behind bars.

“The past does not define you,” she said. “I discovered I have a passion for cooking. And the food fund is enabling me to follow my passion.”