CNBNews

According to the USDA Food Desert Locator, Camden, NJ, was found as one of the Top 9 American Food Deserts. Incredibly, the entire city of Camden, NJ with 80,000 residents, has only one full-service supermarket and is missing an adequate transportation system. Due to Camden’s extreme situation as an impoverished “food desert”, the Camden City Garden Club has immensely expanded their community gardening program (tripling the number of community gardens throughout the city in last 3 years).  The University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Public Health Initiatives (CPHI) funded a research study of urban community gardens, finding “Camden, NJ has perhaps the fastest growing community gardens program in the country”. All these gardens are administered by CCGC/CCG and since this study was completed, Camden has added more than 50 community gardens.  The University Penn Study Report found that “community gardening is a viable food security strategy in the City of Camden”.