Subaru is incredibly passionate about our investment in the greater Camden community. Our involvement with this special community is 30 years strong and growing through each of our community partner relationships. We have taken a very intentional approach to our involvement in Camden by working with Camden nonprofits and community organizations to understand the unique challenges and opportunities our neighbors face. This strategy has taught us to be creative in how we marry needs with our philanthropic goals. The Subaru of America Foundation grant program is geographically focused in the city of Camden.
Learn about the Subaru of America Foundation
In addition to our financial support for the city, our employees also volunteer regularly through our various local nonprofit partnerships. We could not be prouder to be a part of this community and continue to work toward supporting the city of Camden.
Empowering Our Camden Neighbors
Girls, Inc. is a comprehensive organization focused on empowering girls ages 6-18. Their research-based programming focuses on the development of the whole girl, supporting, mentoring, and guiding girls in an affirming, pro-girl environment that currently serves more than 2,000 girls each year. Subaru is proud to have partnered with Girls, Inc. to bring their critical resources to our hometown of Camden, New Jersey, for the first time.
Cathedral Kitchen’s mission is changing lives through food. They provide three main services for the Camden area: nourishment, training, and employment. Through these services, the organization feeds an average of 300-plus people per day and holds culinary and baking arts training programs, which have prepared over 365 individuals for jobs in the culinary industry to date. In addition, Cathedral Kitchen provides job opportunities for training program graduates and Camden residents through its meal preparation and delivery service with Volunteers of America, the Cathedral Kitchen Café and catering business, and the organization’s food truck. With its Subaru investment, Cathedral Kitchen was able to build a rooftop garden for its café, which helps fund about 20% of the nonprofit’s mission, and to hire a full-time nutritionist and educator. Subaru employees also volunteer monthly serving meals, some of which include vegetables that Subaru grows in its own Share the Love Garden.
For the past 17 years, Hopeworks has trained Camden youth in technology solutions. Over the course of a long-term partnership, Subaru has worked with Hopeworks to provide mentorship and sponsorship opportunities through a collaborative IT department internship program. In addition to teaching Hopeworks students about technology and other critical job skills, select Subaru managers have been trained by Hopeworks’ Youth Healing Team on the impact of trauma on a person’s ability to succeed. Subaru will also cover the cost for any Camden-based organization to receive the same trauma training.
LUCY (“Lifting Up Camden’s Youth”) Outreach is an organization that offers multi-lingual, culturally sensitive services to low-income Camden County teens and young adults ages 7-25, as well as their families. LUCY empowers youth to form healthy relationships, make good choices, and develop into compassionate and socially responsible adults who make a positive difference in their community.
Joseph’s House is an organization based in Camden, NJ, whose mission is to work collaboratively with others to aid the homeless by offering a continuum of services including: emergency shelter and access to supportive housing and comprehensive social services. Joseph’s House is committed to a Camden where no neighbor sleeps outside, even for one night.
Thanks to the financial support from the Subaru of America Foundation, Joseph’s House has added services, employees, and hours to serve thousands of guests per year. The organization also assisted 261 people with their personal identification, 51 with employment, 86 secured housing, and 3,314 connections for services like medical care, mental health, addiction, and veterans services.
The Subaru Share the Love Garden began in 2009. It started with a small garden on the grounds of our headquarters and has grown to include eight raised beds producing, on average, 600 pounds of organic produce annually. The garden is planted, maintained, and harvested by employees with the help of a local nonprofit, the Center for Environmental Transformation. All of the produce is donated to a local soup kitchen to help feed our neighbors in need. Over the garden's lifespan, we have donated over 8,000 pounds of produce.
