August 2026 Edition

Freedom to Thrive

As a South Jersey resident, I grew up in surrounding communities of Camden, New Jersey, and have relatives native to the neighborhood of Parkside. Once a flourishing middle-class city of diverse families with a bustling waterfront anchored by the internationally renowned RCA Victor building, Camden engenders imagery of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, embodying both the best of times and the worst of times depending upon which side of the street you’re on. I’ve witnessed this firsthand, having worked and served in this community for more than two decades, first as a public relations consultant to the Camden Waterfront Marketing Bureau; then with Loving Our Cities, which has operated a mobile pantry with Camden's Charter School Network in Cramer Hill for more than a decade, and most recently with ReNew, a reentry program of the United States Attorney General’s Office (USAO) where I fulfilled my practicum placement as a graduate student with Columbia University School of Social Work and Union Theological Seminary.    

ReNew is a collaborative team led and supported by the USAO, the Federal Public Defender’s Office, and U.S. Probation with an aim "to diminish recidivism by providing individualized support to those reentering society from federal prison." ReNew Camden participants benefit from access to assistance with securing food, clothing, employment, job certification, healthcare, housing, civil legal services, and mental health counseling, and upon successful completion of 72 weeks, an 18-month reduction of supervised release.  However, it became painfully apparent during my tenure with ReNew that if these resources had been equitably accessible as early interventions, ReNew participants would have most likely avoided incarceration altogether.

In The Sum of Us, Heather Mcghee writes “The rise in student diversity shifted the politics of state education spending across the country. As part of the anti-government fervor in the 1980s and ‘90s, spending on the welfare of youth fell out of favor, but meanwhile, legislatures were tripling their expenditures on incarceration and policing. By 2016, eighteen states were spending more on jails and prisons than they were on colleges and universities.”  Mcghee goes on to argue this costs all of us, although it disproportionately affects Black and Brown people in America, perpetuating a racial caste system that, according to Michelle Alexander, a classmate at Union Theological Seminary, leverages mass incarceration as The New Jim Crow. One example Alexander posits is the Brown v Board of Education decision in which the Supreme Court declared separate schools inherently unequal in 1954, yet segregation persisted unabated for ten years as “a mere one percent of Black school children were attending schools with whites in 1964 (Brown, et al, 2023).” 

The persistence of racial inequities in education maintains a direct correlation to the school-to-prison pipeline plaguing historically marginalized communities. As the accompanying picture I captured during my tenure with ReNew demonstrates, there are clear pathways in America—some lead directly to institutions of higher learning. In contrast, others lead to courthouses and prisons.  Unfortunately, not all are privileged with choice, as systemic barriers impeding equitable access to nutritious food and a quality education decide for us every day.  This informs the vision and mission of Loving Our Cities as, despite the DEI backlash, we double down on ensuring equitable access to resources for individuals, families, and communities to thrive in food desert communities dually designated as Abbott School Districts in South Jersey.  

The August edition of The Pulse demonstrates the many ways we do this through Freedom School, KidFlix, Garden State of Mind, food pantries, and our Love Hub, reinforcing that it not only takes a village to raise a child, but to love our cities.  Join us! Visit www.lovingourcities.org or email info@lovingourcities.org to donate, volunteer, or partner with Loving Our Cities to foster a more just and equitable world where all have equal opportunities to thrive.

Brown, A., Alston, E., Douglas, C., Eticha, H. (2023, October 19). Mass incarceration and the legacy of slavery [Unpublished manuscript]. Department of Social Work, Columbia University.

Perfecting Plaza Pantry

Tuesdays | Temporarily Paused

Thursdays | 3:30 p.m. - 7 p.m.

Fridays (Prep Only) | 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Perfecting Plaza

274 Delsea Drive

Sewell, NJ 08080

Volunteer to serve our neighbors by maintaining our food HUB, a 9,000 square-foot warehouse where we sort, stock, and distribute food.

Winslow Hope Mobile Pantry

Every 2nd Saturday | 8:30 a.m. - 11 a.m.

Winslow Township School #3 Parking Lot 131 Sicklerville Road

Sicklerville, NJ 08081

Join us in spreading more hope and less hunger every SECOND Saturday of the month in partnership with Winslow Township Municipality and Winslow School #3.

Cramer Hill School Pantry

Every 3rd Saturday | 8:30 a.m. - 11 a.m.

Camden Academy Charter High School

820 Lois Avenue, Camden, NJ 08105

Serve our neighbors in Cramer Hill every THIRD Saturday of the month alongside student volunteers from Camden's Promise Charter School.

Wooster Towers Senior Pantry

Every 4th Wednesday | 10 a.m. - 12p.m.

Wooster Towers

22 Gibbsboro Road, Clementon, 08021

We serve seniors at Wooster Towers every FOURTH Wednesday of the month alongside our dedicated senior volunteers willing to help their neighbors in need.