When Chef Shawn Clayborn describes with gusto the meal that she will be cooking for Thanksgiving dinner, the list reads like an all-star lineup of classic comfort foods: turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, collard greens, cornbread and mashed potatoes topped off with savory gravy.
And bringing comfort to the more than 300 people at two locations that will be receiving her meals on Thanksgiving is something that drives the native Detroiter year-round.
“It’s an honor to cook for the people I serve,” said Clayborn, the head chef and kitchen manager at Pope Francis Center, a nonprofit that serves nutritious hot meals to homeless people in Detroit six days a week. “I fell in love with the center and the job, and I don’t think they will ever be able to get rid of me.”
The smile says it all for Chef Shawn Clayborn, the head chef and kitchen manager at Pope Francis Center, a nonprofit that serves nutritious hot meals to homeless people in Detroit. “It’s an honor to cook for the people I serve,” says Clayborn, a graduate of East Catholic High School (Class of 2000) who grew up near Eastern Market.
A Class of 2000 graduate of Detroit East Catholic High School who grew up near Eastern Market, Clayborn joined the center in 2023 and quickly embraced the challenge of preparing and serving full meals to more than 200 people a day from a cozy kitchen at the day center next to Saints Peter and Paul Jesuit Church — the oldest church building in continuous use in the city of Detroit.
This summer, Clayborn’s responsibilities increased substantially when Pope Francis Center opened a 60,000-square-foot Bridge Housing Campus — a first of its kind facility built to transition people from “homelessness to hope.” For the betterment of residents that are anticipated to stay between 90-120 days before transitioning to permanent housing, the campus includes a furnished, 40-unit residential apartment complex; a free medical and dental clinic; a library and classrooms; a chapel; a barbershop; space for family gatherings and special events, and another space where Clayborn is most often found. That would be the full-size commercial kitchen equipped with two convection ovens, two regular ovens and a tilt skillet that enables Clayborn to make soup for 300 people at a time.
Furnished studio apartments are part of the resources offered to residents at Pope Francis Center’s Bridge Housing Campus. Another vital resource is Chef Shawn Clayborn, who cooks hearty, healthy nutritious meals with the help of a dedicated group of volunteers. Clayborn also teaches classes focused on cooking and life skills to the Bridge Housing Campus residents.
From the sparkling new kitchen, Clayborn wasted no time to stand up a new operation working with a dedicated volunteer staff to regularly prepare 350 servings of a complete meal that are shipped to the PFC day center. At the same time, her kitchen prepares and serves three meals daily for the initial residents of the housing campus, which officially opened in June.
Without fanfare or public recognition, kitchen volunteers at Pope Francis Center (PFC) play a huge role in feeding people in need, including on Thanksgiving when PFC will serve more than 300 hearty meals at its day center and new Bridge Housing Campus combined.
“I’m on the ground floor, right in the middle of things, and I get to watch the program grow,” Clayborn said on the afternoon of Nov. 20. “And it’s amazing to see it turn out exactly as they planned.”
Journey to helping others
Perhaps equally amazing is the path that led Clayborn to the Pope Francis Center.
When Clayborn graduated from East Catholic, she enrolled at the University of Detroit Mercy with her sights set on ultimately going to dental school en route to becoming an orthodontist. Clayborn would later work 10 years as a dental assistant, but when the dental office where she was employed closed, Clayborn faced a career crossroads.
And that is when the proud daughter of Eddie and Veronica Clayborn began to turn her attention to the lessons she had absorbed from her father, a Detroit autoworker, who learned the art of cooking down South from his grandmother in Fort Deposit, Alabama.
“My dad was always the main cook in our house, and if he wanted turkey and dressing in the middle of July, he would make it and it would be delicious,” said Clayborn, who, in 2012, called upon everything her father taught her as a student in Dorsey College’s Culinary Arts program. “Dad gave me the basics and culinary school allowed me to learn food safety and develop a skill set.”
But, as Clayborn explained on Nov. 20, about an hour after serving lunch to residents at the Bridge Housing Campus, good cooking cannot really be learned from a book or even in a classroom. Clayborn is a firm believer that the art of cooking requires extensive real-world practice.
And during a journey spanning several years, she received that practice — and picked up many admirers in the process — at places across Detroit like the Roostertail, the former St. Ce Ce’s Food and Spirits in Corktown, the Westin Book Cadillac, Detroit Receiving Hospital and more.
“In the hospital, we served meals to patients in 350 beds, so that helped me a lot with planning,” explained Clayborn, who relies heavily on community allies like Gleaners Community Food Bank — a provider of 2,500 pounds of food every two weeks to the Pope Francis Center kitchen — and Panera Bread, as well as food contributions from community groups and individuals to prepare dishes for her 12-week rotating menu, which is subject to change based on donations. “I also bring my restaurant and banquet experience: That means all of our meals are well-rounded, with 4 to 6 ounces of protein, 4 ounces of a starch and 8 ounces of fresh vegetables.
“And, just like in a banquet hall, we want our food to be presented in a nice way. In our salad bar, you’ll see our cucumbers looking like flowers because you eat with your eyes, and as long as the food is visually colorful, people will try it.”
Along with bringing a host of food experience, Clayborn says she also comes to work each day with a ton of genuine respect for the people she serves.
“I have been enlightened about the inside of homelessness,” said Clayborn, who also teaches classes focused on cooking and life skills to residents at the housing campus. “So often people will say things like: ‘Why don’t you get a job;’ or ‘You chose this life.’ I have to admit that I had thoughts like this in the past about people that are homeless. But when we say things like that, it’s like we’re not giving a person credit for being a human being. I have learned that there are so many levels and layers to homelessness. It could be mental illness, or a house fire, or the loss of a mother, or other trauma. …
“We have people in our program with food service backgrounds, and in our classes I ask them to teach others. And after the meals are served (at the Bridge Housing Campus) I love to sit down at different tables and talk to the residents because we all need to learn about and help each other.”
On the afternoon of Nov. 20, Clayborn, a devoted mother and grandmother, also revealed that she is a fan of traditions like America’s Thanksgiving Parade, which she has attended “all of her life.”
Clayborn also is a fan of the Detroit Lions. But, she said, her eyes will not be glued to the Thanksgiving action when the Lions host the Chicago Bears because she and a team of volunteers will be taking care of their own important business.
“I will forfeit the game to make sure the holiday meal is a success,” said Clayborn, who expressed her enthusiasm for the first holiday meal that will be presented to the Bridge Housing Campus residents in a family atmosphere. “I couldn’t do any of this without our volunteers, and I hope that all of the residents that we serve stay on the path because everyone seems to be doing well.”
Chef Shawn Clayborn, right, stands tall with her sous chef Yvonne Martin and all of the people they nourish through Pope Francis Center.
Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and a lifelong lover of Detroit culture in its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott’s stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/. Please help us grow great community-focused journalism by becoming a subscriber.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit chef Shawn Clayborn feeds hundreds of people in need
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