Fifteen faith-based community programs are recipients of the EPA's Community Change Grant
DETROIT — The St. Suzanne Cody Rouge Community Resource Center and the Capuchin Soup Kitchen are looking to promote conservation in their neighborhoods thanks to a federal grant endowment, which will allow them to become climate resilience hubs.
These two Catholic community outreach programs are among 15 community-serving houses of worship and food assistance programs in Detroit that are the recipients of the $20 million Community Change Grant awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. EcoWorks, in collaboration with Michigan Interfaith Power & Light and Solar Faithful, is leading this historic initiative.
Following the December 2024 announcement, St. Suzanne Cody Rouge and the Capuchins are now taking the first steps toward using the federal grant to make their centers more climate-resilient, reduce their carbon footprints and serve their communities during weather emergencies such as power outages and flooding.
Each of the recipients is well established within their communities and provides essential services such as food assistance, education, workforce development, financial assistance and more, Cody Rouge director Steve Wasko explained to Detroit Catholic.
“We live in a neighborhood in Detroit that is prone to a series of somewhat extended power outages for the last number of years," Wasko said. "We are also in a neighborhood where the residents have frequent water backups, flooding, street puddling, sewage backups, etc., due to the aging infrastructure of the water system.”
The St. Suzanne Cody Rouge Center was established in 2017 in the former school building at St. Suzanne/Our Lady Gate of Heaven Parish in Detroit's west side.
Wasko said the center is most needed during emergency situations, but without access to power, water and other essential resources, it cannot provide assistance.
The Community Change Grant will allow the center to build and install the necessary infrastructure to continue to provide services and shelter to the community, even during times of crisis, Wasko said. He expects the process to move quickly and for new infrastructure to be up within 18 months.
“This really goes to the heart (of what we do),” Wasko said. “We like to think that we don’t just provide services, but we help with resilience in a broad sense each and every day that we are working in the community. This is a very specific tangible example of resilience; to be able to be up and open and functioning and providing services when they are needed the most.”
The St. Suzanne Cody Rouge Community Resource Center had already taken steps toward becoming a greener, energy-saving community, before receiving the Community Change Grant, thanks to the financial assistance of several other grants. The center switched to energy-efficient light fixtures, created rain gardens, and just recently, on the feast of the Epiphany, dedicated and blessed two newly installed boilers in the church, which will not only reduce their energy usage by 27 percent but also significantly decreases their monthly utility bills.
“Every dollar that we don’t have to spend on the utility bill goes right back to program and mission,” Wasko said.
Thanks to the Community Change Grant, Wasko said further environmental efforts, such as installing a new energy-efficient roof with solar panels, are possible. The panels will provide the majority of the building's energy, and any excess solar energy will be stored in backup batteries.
Additionally, the grant will help fund the effort to switch the community center from its old central heating system to one that relies on electricity rather than natural gases; each room will have its own controllable heat pump.
The grant also allows the center to help teach the community about sustainability. Currently, the center trains local residents in the stormwater industry, but with the addition of solar energy sources, Wasko said they can now provide workforce development programs for residents interested in the solar industry.
Finally, the campus plans to install electric vehicle charging stations and build an EV ride-share program where community members can rent out electric vehicles.
When all is said and done, Wasko expects the center will reduce its carbon footprint by another 25 percent.
Bro. Gary Wegner, OFM Cap., executive director of Capuchin Soup Kitchen, explained that the grant will fund the installation of solar panels at both the Capuchin's Connor and Meldrum sites and the Capuchin Services Center on Medbury on Detroit's east side.
“This way, we will be able to continue serving the community even in times of extreme weather or power outages, as well as not ending up having large amounts of food spoilage if the power goes out,” Bro. Wegner said.
Bro. Wegner said that the Capuchin Soup Kitchen and other climate resilience hubs are “vitally important” Detroiters, particularly in the poorest neighborhoods.
The purpose of the Community Change Grant aligns with the Capuchins' mission, which is inspired by the life of St. Francis of Assisi.
“From the Great Depression to the 1967 uprising, to 2025, we really have tried to respond to what is happening in the day so that we can best serve our neighbors and our guests,” Bro. Wegner added. "We are hoping this grant will help us address environmental justice, as many of our neighbors are disproportionately affected by climate change. By reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and implementing some more green infrastructure, hopefully, we are contributing to a healthier, more equitable community.”
Both Wasko and Bro. Wegner cited Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical, Laudato si', as a framework to help Catholics understand the importance of environmental justice and care for both the earth and the poor.
“Pope Francis nailed it in Laudato si' when he spoke about the overlapping call to respond to the cry of the poor and to respond to the cry of the earth,” Wasko said. “The overall use of fossil fuels and carbonization has the most deleterious impact on the poorest communities first in terms of health, asthma, cancer … This is a truly wonderful opportunity to do both things at once: to respond to the cry of the poor and to respond to the cry of the earth.”
