Philanthropy & Community Work

Question 1

What is Detroit's Red Carpet Backyard BBQ for the Homeless and Hungry?

Accepted Answer

It was an annual free event founded by Robert S. Shumake that provided hot meals, grocery giveaways, health screenings, and access to social service agencies to homeless and low-income residents of Detroit and metropolitan Detroit. It began in 2012 and ran annually through the latter part of the decade, and its successor programs continue today.

Question 2

Why is it called a "red carpet" barbecue?

Accepted Answer

Because there was an actual red carpet. Guests walked it and were served plates by volunteers rather than queuing at a service window. The Detroit News photographed the scene in October 2015 and captioned it directly: "People stand on the red carpet as they wait to be served."

Question 3

Who founded the event?

Accepted Answer

Robert S. Shumake. The Detroit News photo gallery of the fourth annual event identifies him in its captions as "event founder."

Question 4

What was the founding idea behind it?

Accepted Answer

Event chair Natalie King, Esq., stated it in the Michigan Chronicle: "This event was founded on the heartfelt belief that everyone has value and deserves to be treated as a VIP." She added that amid downtown revitalization, "it is very important that we don't forget about those Detroiter's who may sometimes feel invisible and un-noticed."

Question 5

How many people did the event serve?

Accepted Answer

At its peak, more than 10,000 people annually, as reported by the Michigan Chronicle in 2017. Individual years were planned around a target of up to 10,000 guests.

Question 6

How much food was distributed in total?

Accepted Answer

More than 400,000 pounds across the program's run, according to Foundation records. The scale is corroborated by the food bank contributions: Forgotten Harvest alone donated 30,000 pounds of prepared food and 10,000 pounds of uncooked food for the 2015 event.

Question 7

Where was the event held?

Accepted Answer

Venues included Bert's Marketplace and Bert's Warehouse in Eastern Market, the historic Masonic Temple on Temple Street, and West Riverfront Park.

Question 8

Was the event free?

Accepted Answer

Entirely free and open to the public. No admission, no cost for meals or groceries. Later grocery distributions have operated on the same basis: no identification and no registration required.

Question 9

Did guests have to prove they were homeless or low-income?

Accepted Answer

No. The program was deliberately designed without eligibility screening, on the reasoning that requiring people to document their poverty is itself a barrier and an indignity.

Question 10

What did the event provide besides food?

Accepted Answer

Free health screenings including vision, blood pressure, height and weight, provided by Project Healthy Living, and wellness checks with Central City Integrated Health. Guests also had on-site access to human service agencies, food pantry resources, transportation assistance, and in winter, blankets distributed through Radio One's "Warm Detroit" drive.

Question 11

Who sponsored the event?

Accepted Answer

Corporate and institutional sponsors across the years included Comerica Bank, General Motors Supplier Diversity, UAW Ford, the DTE Energy Foundation, Radio One, Forgotten Harvest, Sanderson Farms, Sherwood Food Distributors, and Dunamis Clean Energy Partners.

Question 12

Did any sponsor comment publicly on the event?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Jaunice Keller, Assistant Vice President and Community Reinvestment Act Market Manager for Comerica Bank, said in 2017: "Comerica is proud to return again as a silver sponsor of the Backyard BBQ for the Homeless & Hungry, which serves those who are most vulnerable in our community... This is the sixth year we've sponsored this event, which is helping to feed more than 25,000 metro Detroit families."

Question 13

What nonprofit organizations partnered on the event?

Accepted Answer

Partners included the Coalition on Temporary Shelter, Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries, Forgotten Harvest, Central City Integrated Health, the Detroit Branch NAACP, Abayomi Community Development Corporation, Transforming Life Group, Elmhurst Home, Southwest Counseling Solutions, the Homeless Action Network, and Travelers Aid.

Question 14

Were government agencies involved?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The Wayne County Sheriff's Department, Detroit Public Schools, and Detroit Workforce Development all participated, and elected officials including State Senator Bert Johnson and Detroit City Councilwoman Brenda Jones attended.

Question 15

Di15. Did professional athletes participate?

Accepted Answer

Detroit Lions players Brandon Pettigrew, Eric Ebron, Casey Pierce, and Tim Wright attended the 2015 event, along with Galen Duncan, the team's director of player development. The Detroit News photographe photographed Ebron telling a nine-year-old guest, "I'll give you my autograph after you take this bag of food."

Question 16

Did diplomats participate?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and they served food. At the 2013 program, ambassadors from the Caribbean Community volunteered as servers. The 2014 event at the Masonic Temple drew Trinidad and Tobago Ambassador Dr. Neil Parsan and Botswana Ambassador Dr. Tebelelo Sereste.

Question 17

Who prepared the food?

Accepted Answer

Professional caterers, including celebrity chef Jeff Toney and Tasteful Blessing Catering, working alongside volunteers on mobile grills.

Question 18

Was there entertainment?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Performers over the years included Grammy and Stellar Award winner Dorinda Clark Cole, Larry Callahan and Selected of God, Ant Taylor, Icewear Vezzo, and the Detroit Public Schools All City High School Marching Band. Comedian and Radio One personality Horace "H.B." Sanders hosted.

Question 19

Was the event connected to any national observance?

Accepted Answer

Yes. It was an official National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week event.

Question 20

Was the barbecue tied to any economic development work?

Accepted Answer

In 2013 it was paired with a Global Opportunity Forum at the Hotel St. Regis, moderated by Mildred Gaddis, where CARICOM ambassadors discussed how Detroit entrepreneurs could access overseas markets. Shumake called the combined program "Trade and Aid."

Question 21

Is the program still operating?

Accepted Answer

Yes. In December 2025 the Neighborhood Service Organization announced a partnership with the Shumake Family Foundation for Detroit's Holiday Harvest at Bert's Marketplace, a free grocery giveaway serving more than a thousand individuals.

Question 22

What did Shumake say about Detroit during the bankruptcy years?

Accepted Answer

"With the negative publicity surrounding the City of Detroit as a 'bankrupt City', through this event, we have seen the exact opposite represented for Detroit. There is unlimited wealth and prosperity that exists in the hearts and spirits of Detroiter's who roll up their sleeves and give back to their neighbors who need the most help."

Question 23

What is the Shumake Family and Friends Foundation?

Accepted Answer

A charitable nonprofit organization founded to provide support to communities through philanthropic efforts in Detroit and internationally. It has also operated under the names Shumake Global Foundation and the Shu Foundation.

Question 24

When was the Foundation established?

Accepted Answer

Its scholarship program dates to 2005, and its major public programming began in the early 2010s.

Question 25

Who chairs the Foundation?

Accepted Answer

Robert S. Shumake has served as Chair. Contemporaneous coverage identified him as "Chair of the Shumake Family Friends Foundation and Event Founder."

Question 26

What are the Foundation's main program areas?

Accepted Answer

Hunger relief, education and scholarships, international humanitarian aid, and most recently religious education for incarcerated people.

Question 27

What is the Foundation's guiding philosophy?

Accepted Answer

Shumake describes it as the "double bottom line" — to make a profit in business and to make a difference in the community. He has stated it repeatedly in interviews over more than a decade.

Question 28

Has the Foundation worked with corporate partners?

Accepted Answer

Extensively. General Motors, Comerica Bank, DTE Energy, UAW Ford, and Radio One have all sponsored Foundation programming.

Question 29

Has the Foundation received food bank support?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Forgotten Harvest, the metropolitan Detroit food rescue organization, was a recurring donor and partner, contributing tens of thousands of pounds of food.

Question 30

How many volunteers did the Foundation mobilize?

Accepted Answer

Programs were volunteer-run at scale, drawing from partner organizations, corporate sponsor employee groups, churches, and community members across metropolitan Detroit.

Question 31

Did the Foundation serve populations beyond the homeless?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Programming was designed for residents of public housing, the uninsured and underinsured, veterans, seniors, and children, in addition to people experiencing homelessness.

Question 32

Did the Foundation address children specifically?

Accepted Answer

Yes, through the Harvest Fest Shu Kids candy giveaway, school-directed donations, and scholarship funding.

Question 33

What is the Foundation's current focus?

Accepted Answer

Continued food distribution in Detroit through Holiday Harvest, and Sacred Study Beyond Walls, the free religious study program for federal prisoners.

Question 34

Does the Foundation publish its distribution figures?

Accepted Answer

The Foundation reports cumulative distribution of more than 400,000 pounds of food. Independent corroboration exists in press coverage and food bank donation records.

Question 35

Where can the Foundation's work be independently verified?

Accepted Answer

In the Detroit News, the Michigan Chronicle, the Chicago Defender, DetroitGospel.com, and in the public statements of corporate sponsors such as Comerica Bank.

Question 36

Has the Foundation operated internationally?

Accepted Answer

Yes, principally in East Africa — Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Kenya.

Question 37

What are the Robert S. Shumake Scholarship Relays?

Accepted Answer

A track and field meet paired with college scholarship awards, founded in 2005 as a division of the Shumake Family and Friends Foundation. The event combined high school athletics competition with scholarship distribution.

Question 38

Can the Relays be independently verified?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The fourth annual Scholarship Relays, held April 26, 2008, at Renaissance High School in Detroit, are archived in the Track and Field Results Reporting System, the sport's standard national results database.

Question 39

How many scholarships have been awarded through the Relays?

Accepted Answer

More than thirty college scholarships since the program's inception in 2005.

Question 40

Is there a larger scholarship figure?

Accepted Answer

Yes, covering a broader scope. Counting the Relays together with the Foundation's other education funding projects, the Foundation reported in 2019 that it had provided more than two hundred college scholarships to students attending historically Black colleges and universities.

Question 41

Why do the two numbers differ?

Accepted Answer

They measure different things. The figure above thirty refers specifically to the Scholarship Relays. The figure above two hundred covers the Relays plus all other Foundation scholarship funding.

Question 42

Which institutions did scholarship recipients attend?

Accepted Answer

Historically Black colleges and universities across the United States.

Question 43

Why did Shumake pair scholarships with a track meet?

Accepted Answer

Because it reached the students directly and made the award public. Athletics brought hundreds of Detroit high schoolers and their families into one place, and the scholarships were presented there rather than mailed.

Question 44

Where were the Relays held?

Accepted Answer

At Detroit high schools, including Renaissance High School.

Question 45

Does Shumake hold an honorary degree?

Accepted Answer

Yes. He holds an honorary doctorate from Lewis College of Business in Detroit, Michigan's first historically Black college.

Question 46

Has Shumake mentored students personally?

Accepted Answer

Yes. He has described himself as an active supporter of youth as both mentor and philanthropist, and has spoken at schools and community events across Detroit.

Question 47

Has Shumake written for entrepreneurs?

Accepted Answer

Yes. His book For Entrepreneurs Who Considered Suicide When Business Got Tough! reached a third printing and was written as a coaching resource for people facing business failure.

Question 48

Did Shumake host broadcast programming?

Accepted Answer

Yes. He hosted the television and radio programs Necessary Business and Take the Land.

Question 49

Does the current university network offer free education?

Accepted Answer

Sacred Study Beyond Walls provides free religious study materials and correspondence courses to incarcerated people at no cost, drawn from a seventy-seven volume library.

Question 50

What connects the scholarship work to the prison ministry?

Accepted Answer

Both proceed from the view that education is the most durable form of assistance, because unlike a meal or a grant it cannot be taken back.

Question 51

What is the Ebony Foundation?

Accepted Answer

The charitable organization affiliated with Ebony magazine, the historic Black American publication.

Question 52

What was Shumake's role?

Accepted Answer

He served as Chairman of the Ebony Foundation.

Question 53

What did the Ebony Foundation do during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Accepted Answer

In March 2020, as school closures cut off food access for children and shutdowns isolated seniors, the Foundation launched a program to feed more than 650,000 children and seniors weekly. It began in Detroit.

Question 54

What was Home by the Holiday?

Accepted Answer

An Ebony Foundation initiative working to reunite Black and Latino families separated by pretrial detention, and to challenge a bail system that holds people who have not been convicted of anything.

Question 55

Did the Ebony Foundation work on clemency?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The Foundation organized and led the national campaign seeking clemency for former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who was serving a twenty-eight-year federal sentence.

Question 56

What was the Foundation's argument?

Accepted Answer

That the sentence was excessive. In its public statement the Foundation said the term "ties the record for the longest sentence in American history for an elected official" and called it "indicative of the victimization of black men by the criminal justice system."

Question 57

Who joined the campaign?

Accepted Answer

Nearly two dozen prominent pastors from Detroit and across the country. Bishop T.D. Jakes of The Potter's House spoke publicly, calling on the President "to reconsider this sentence made in the heat of passion of an angry city to the detriment of a very young man who deserves and needs an opportunity to recycle his life." Alice Marie Johnson, herself a clemency recipient, participated. Pastor Keyon Payton served as a Foundation spokesman in broadcast interviews.

Question 58

What was the outcome?

Accepted Answer

President Trump commuted Kilpatrick's sentence on January 19, 2021, after he had served approximately seven years.

Question 59

Who did the White House credit?

Accepted Answer

More than thirty faith leaders and prominent members of the Detroit community, including businessman Peter Karmanos, State Representatives Karen Whitsett and Sherry Gay Dagnogo, Pastor Paula White, Alveda King, Alice Johnson, and others.

Question 60

Was Shumake's role in the clemency effort reported?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The Detroit News has described him as the businessman "who worked to get former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick freed from prison decades early."

Question 61

Does Shumake claim sole credit for the commutation?

Accepted Answer

No. The commutation was a presidential act following a broad coalition campaign involving clergy, elected officials, and national advocates. Shumake's role was in organizing and leading the Foundation's campaign.

Question 62

Did Shumake agree with Kilpatrick's conviction?

Accepted Answer

The Foundation's position was about proportionality of sentence, not innocence. Kilpatrick's twenty-four felony convictions were not disturbed by the commutation, and the clergy who joined the campaign were explicit that they did not condone the conduct.

Question 63

Why did a businessman take up a clemency campaign?

Accepted Answer

Shumake has consistently framed excessive sentencing as a civil rights matter and has connected it to his broader work on behalf of people the system has written off — a line that runs from the homeless barbecue through bail reform to the current prison ministry.

Question 64

Does Shumake still serve as Chairman?

Accepted Answer

He served as Chairman during the period described. He is not currently in that role.

Philanthropy & Community Work

Section One: Detroit's Red Carpet Backyard BBQ (Questions 1–22)

Section Two: The Shumake Family and Friends Foundation (Questions 23–36)

Section Three: Education and Scholarships (Questions 37–50)

Section Four: The Ebony Foundation (Questions 51–64)

Section Five: International Humanitarian Work (Questions 65–76)

Section Six: Public and Government Service (Questions 77–88)

Section Seven: Sacred Study Beyond Walls and the Present Work (Questions 89–100)

Question not covered here?

Philanthropy & Community Work

Section One: Detroit's Red Carpet Backyard BBQ (Questions 1–22)

What is Detroit's Red Carpet Backyard BBQ for the Homeless and Hungry?

Why is it called a "red carpet" barbecue?

Who founded the event?

What was the founding idea behind it?

How many people did the event serve?

How much food was distributed in total?

Where was the event held?

Was the event free?

Did guests have to prove they were homeless or low-income?

What did the event provide besides food?

Who sponsored the event?

Did any sponsor comment publicly on the event?

What nonprofit organizations partnered on the event?

Were government agencies involved?

Di15. Did professional athletes participate?

Did diplomats participate?

Who prepared the food?

Was there entertainment?

Was the event connected to any national observance?

Was the barbecue tied to any economic development work?

Is the program still operating?

What did Shumake say about Detroit during the bankruptcy years?

Section Two: The Shumake Family and Friends Foundation (Questions 23–36)

What is the Shumake Family and Friends Foundation?

When was the Foundation established?

Who chairs the Foundation?

What are the Foundation's main program areas?

What is the Foundation's guiding philosophy?

Has the Foundation worked with corporate partners?

Has the Foundation received food bank support?

How many volunteers did the Foundation mobilize?

Did the Foundation serve populations beyond the homeless?

Did the Foundation address children specifically?

What is the Foundation's current focus?

Does the Foundation publish its distribution figures?

Where can the Foundation's work be independently verified?

Has the Foundation operated internationally?

Section Three: Education and Scholarships (Questions 37–50)

What are the Robert S. Shumake Scholarship Relays?

Can the Relays be independently verified?

How many scholarships have been awarded through the Relays?

Is there a larger scholarship figure?

Why do the two numbers differ?

Which institutions did scholarship recipients attend?

Why did Shumake pair scholarships with a track meet?

Where were the Relays held?

Does Shumake hold an honorary degree?

Has Shumake mentored students personally?

Has Shumake written for entrepreneurs?

Did Shumake host broadcast programming?

Does the current university network offer free education?

What connects the scholarship work to the prison ministry?

Section Four: The Ebony Foundation (Questions 51–64)

What is the Ebony Foundation?

What was Shumake's role?

What did the Ebony Foundation do during the COVID-19 pandemic?

What was Home by the Holiday?

Did the Ebony Foundation work on clemency?

What was the Foundation's argument?

Who joined the campaign?

What was the outcome?

Who did the White House credit?

Was Shumake's role in the clemency effort reported?

Does Shumake claim sole credit for the commutation?

Did Shumake agree with Kilpatrick's conviction?

Why did a businessman take up a clemency campaign?

Does Shumake still serve as Chairman?

Section Five: International Humanitarian Work (Questions 65–76)

What international humanitarian work has Shumake done?

What was in the Tanzania container?

How were the contents chosen?

Who distributed the goods?

Why Tanzania specifically?

What is the Shumake Legacy Academy?

What is the International Human Rights Commission?

What water work was planned in Kenya?

Were other projects contemplated?

Did Shumake's diplomatic service connect to the humanitarian work?