How the Detroit Grand Prix speeds food to Detroit’s homeless

Posted by Talbot Payne on May 31, 2026

A Corvette roars past the Pope Francis Center in the St. Peter and Paul Church on Jefferson.

A Corvette roars past the Pope Francis Center in the St. Peter and Paul Church on Jefferson.

Henry Payne, The Detroit News

 

Detroit — Exiting Turn 2 onto the long, Jefferson Avenue straight, Detroit Grand Prix racers row their steeds through six gears, their howling, 12,000-RPM engines hitting 185 mph as they reverberate off the canyon of Detroit buildings.

The Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Presented by Lear feeds our need for speed. It also feeds the homeless.

One of the buildings that lines the ¾-mile long straight is Detroit’s oldest church, St. Peter and Paul at 438 St. Antoine, which houses the Pope Francis Day Center for the homeless. It’s one of four charities (Belle Isle Conservancy, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Detroit, and the Detroit Public Safety Foundation are the others) that the Grand Prix, now in its fourth year downtown, prioritizes.

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