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The new community center will create 160 jobs.
The 27th Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in the U.S. has announced it will officially open its doors in Camden, N.J., in October 2014.
The 120,000 square-foot facility is currently being constructed on 24 acres of land previously used as a landfill. Once finished, it will provide families a safe place for learning, exercising and community-building. It figures to be a welcome addition to one of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in America, where 35 percent of families live below the poverty line.
“It’s hard to find good news in Camden,” said Major Paul Cain, Camden Kroc Center administrator. “This Kroc Center is indeed good news; good news built with bricks and concrete but also with love.”
The Camden Kroc Center will create 160 jobs as well as countless opportunities for healing, growth and education in Camden.
Major Cain sees the baseball, basketball and soccer fields, swimming pool, client choice food pantry, day care center, pond, and solar panel field soon to come.
Thanks to the generosity of corporate sponsors, political leaders like Mayor Dana Redd, Wells Fargo, Campbell’s, and the city of Camden—this center is becoming a reality.
