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EMR, a scrap metal recycling company whose five Camden facilities have been the site of repeated fires, has awarded its first grant under a 2025 agreement with the city to donate to community initiatives.
EMR will donate $563,000 to Mighty Writers, a community organization that provides literacy programming and free food in Camden’s Waterfront South neighborhood. The nonprofit paused its services in South Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania last month amid a budget shortfall. The organization says the grant will help it restore six staff members who were furloughed and bring back after-school programming, food distributions five days per week and summer camps in Camden.
“On behalf of our staff and the children and families we serve, I am deeply grateful to EMR and the EMR Camden Community Benefits Fund,” said Corinne Green, CEO and executive director of Mighty Writers, in a written statement. “This investment has helped restore employment, sustain essential services, and give us the financial breathing room to rebuild responsibly.”
The grant announcement comes less than a month after the city sued EMR, accusing the company of violating a memorandum of understanding signed with the city after a massive four-alarm fire at EMR’s metal shredder drove roughly 100 people to evacuate their homes in February 2025. The agreement required the company to pay an initial $1 million plus $450,000 each year for five years into a community benefits fund administered by the Community Foundation of South Jersey, to be distributed for community improvements or medical, environmental, educational and scientific initiatives in Camden.
The city’s lawyers claimed EMR had failed to donate the required amount. The company donated just over $783,000 to the fund between August 2025, when the agreement was signed, and September 2026, according to records EMR filed in a separate lawsuit. The company had made monthly donations to the Community Foundation of South Jersey prior to signing the agreement with the city, and says when these are taken into account, the fund totals $2.3 million — more than the agreement requires.
Grants from the fund are distributed by a committee made up of representatives from EMR, the city and Camden residents.
The grant to Mighty Writers can be used for employee salaries, food, supplies and other expenses in Camden, EMR USA CEO Joe Balzano said Tuesday. He said the organization serves the immediate and future needs of Waterfront South residents.
“When you look at the stuff that they’re doing for the students and their literacy program, … it’s really giving the kids a foundation so that they can excel and grow in the future,” Balzano said. “At the same time, the food distribution really is remarkable, the amount of people that are using that program.”
Mighty Writers runs nine locations in Philadelphia, Kennett Square, Camden and Atlantic City and had around three dozen staff, before it furloughed 26 employees last month.
