Why We Exist

When the stay-at-home order was issued by Michigan’s Governor Whitmer in March 2020, churches in Detroit quickly responded. Thirty congregations and institutions of faith mobilized to form the Detroit Benevolent Society (DBS), modeled on the traditional African Benevolent Societies created as early as the 1700s to provide mutual aid to free Blacks and those escaping slavery.

This collective of Black churches, along with organizations, students, and individuals, came together initially to address food insecurity among senior citizens and the economically vulnerable. The organizations mobilized by the DBS have supplied more than 750,000 meals. This impassioned charitable impulse demonstrates the power of churches to meet immediate needs. Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services, impressed by the strong community reach of Black Churches, recruited community level congregations to implement COVID-19 testing in their churches.