Headline: Exit 22 — Camden: A $10K DoorDash Push Tests the Limits of Food Access Along the I‑295 Corridor
By Ari Williams
A $10,000 stack of DoorDash gift cards landed at Malandra Hall this week, intended to put hot meals and groceries within reach of Camden families in short-term crisis and school-aged children served by the city Department of Human Resources. It’s the kind of corporate donation that reads well at a press conference: dollars, logos, and a promise of immediate relief.
But for residents who navigate the city’s neighborhoods and the I‑295 corridor every day, this kind of aid raises bigger, longer-running questions about how we move food, money, and opportunity across our towns — and who wins when private technology firms step in to fill gaps left by public infrastructure.
Where this matters on the map
The donation’s impact will be felt most directly for neighborhoods within a short delivery radius of downtown Camden — sectors that sit a mile or two from the interstate ramps. The I‑295 exit that funnels most traffic toward these neighborhoods (and toward the Admiral Wilson Boulevard/Broadway commercial spine) is the ramp I’ve identified as Exit 22 (Cuthbert Boulevard/adjacent arterial routes); readers should consider that exit numbering may vary on some maps and verify locally. From that interchange, drivers and delivery couriers head into North Camden, Fairview, and the Waterfront neighborhoods — areas where transit options, car ownership and grocery access vary widely block by block.
The immediate upside: speed and choice
There’s a practical value to DoorDash cards that city staff can deploy quickly. For families with no reliable private transport, delivery removes a major barrier to accessing food — especially during evening hours when traditional pantries and soup kitchens are closed. For school-aged children facing food insecurity on weekends or in the summer, the ability to convert a gift card into delivered meals or groceries can be a literal lifeline.
Courier-based delivery also plugs into existing traffic patterns: drivers coming off I‑295 can reach the waterfront and downtown corridors quickly; side streets feeding neighborhoods allow bike or foot couriers to complete “last mile” deliveries without getting stalled in congested commercial parking lots. In that sense, private delivery leverages a mix of highway throughput and neighborhood density that public transit doesn’t always serve well.
The tradeoffs: fees, availability and the digital divide
But reliance on corporate platforms is not a neutral fix. There are three main tradeoffs we need to be honest about.
– Platform fees and local capture: If gift cards are redeemed through DoorDash, a portion of every order may flow to platform fees or national restaurant chains rather than to locally owned grocers or corner stores — unless the city actively directs spending toward independent businesses that sign onto the service. That matters for Camden’s small-business ecosystem along Broadway and in neighborhood commercial strips: a program that supports residents but bypasses locally owned stores could have perverse effects on neighborhood economic circulation.
– Service deserts within delivery zones: DoorDash presence is uneven. Some independent grocers and bodegas aren’t on the platform, and couriers may deprioritize short, low-fee trips into denser residential blocks. Without an explicit agreement with DoorDash to prioritize these deliveries, some of the families who need help most may still fall through the cracks.
– The digital divide: Gift cards are only useful if someone in the household — or a municipal staffer — can manage an app-based order. Seniors, households without reliable broadband, and people unfamiliar with smartphone ordering often rely on human navigators to place requests. How the Department of Human Resources plans to operationalize orders — through centralized staff ordering, on-site kiosks, or direct household access — will determine whether the cards translate into real meals.
Where this fits in Camden’s broader food system
Camden has been grappling with food access for decades. Supermarkets and full-service grocery options are clustered along major arterials and in neighboring suburbs — often at exits off I‑295 and Route 30 — while many interior neighborhoods rely on smaller markets and corner stores. Urban redevelopment along the waterfront and institutional anchors like Rutgers and Cooper University Hospital bring jobs and foot traffic, but they don’t automatically solve uneven access to affordable, healthy food.
This DoorDash contribution is a temporary, flexible tool. It can reduce immediate hunger and support emergency cases. But if Camden wants to move beyond stopgap assistance, this moment should catalyze a few deliberate steps:
– Track and publish redemption data. The city should work with DoorDash to see where funds are spent, what businesses benefit, and which neighborhoods receive deliveries. Transparency will show whether the gift is reaching the intended households.
– Negotiate local-business commitments. If the goal includes economic lift for Camden vendors, the city can ask DoorDash to waive onboarding fees for local grocers and restaurants, or establish a pilot that routes a percentage of orders to Camden‑based merchants.
– Build digital access pathways. Establish staff‑assisted ordering at community centers like Malandra Hall, provide prepaid cards that can be used by program coordinators, and invest in low-barrier ordering channels for seniors and non‑English speakers.
– Integrate with longer-term food infrastructure. Pair delivery-based programs with investments in community gardens, mobile markets that stop at senior housing and bus-accessible pop-up pantries. Delivery helps in emergencies, but resilient food systems are built with physical, anchored resources in neighborhoods.
A careful partnership, not an endgame
DoorDash’s $10,000 gift is not trivial. It’s an operational tool the city can use now, and it builds on prior in-kind contributions in 2023 and 2024. But the more interesting question isn’t whether the donation helps feed people today — it’s whether city leaders and community organizations use this introduction to platform-based delivery as a lever for broader, equitable change.
I’ll be watching for two things in the coming weeks: how the Department of Human Resources actually routes orders and who reports receiving meals, and whether local business owners see any measurable uptick from the program. If the city documents outcomes and negotiates better terms for Camden merchants, a relatively modest corporate contribution could turn into a case study for other South Jersey towns grappling with similar gaps — all of them tied to the movement and access dynamics shaped by exits like the one at I‑295’s ramp into our city.
If you live in Camden and received a DoorDash delivery tied to this program, or if you’re a local merchant asked to join a delivery platform, I want to hear from you. Email me with specifics — where you are in the city, whether the order arrived on time, and whether local vendors were involved. These details matter. They’re the only way we’ll be able to tell whether a card is just a quick meal, or the start of something more durable for our neighborhoods.
Note on mapping: I’ve referenced I‑295 Exit 22 (Cuthbert Boulevard/adjacent arterial routes) as the primary interchange feeding Camden’s downtown and waterfront corridors based on regional maps; exit numbering can vary by source and should be verified against official NJDOT signage.
