As the Detroit auto plants instated "just-in-time" parts delivery, parts manufacturers were hit hard. Imports from Japan hurt the local parts makers, too. In 1980, unemployment in Michigan hit double digits and kept going higher.

The laid-off workers soon exhausted their unemployment benefits. Most had little savings to tide them over to another job. Unless one had a special skill, jobs were hard to find.

The JTPA federal program only made it worse. The Job Training Partnership Act encouraged employers to hire temporary workers to train for future jobs. It was a farce. The workers' wages would be paid by the government for six months. Then if an employer wanted a person, he was hired full time. If not, he was laid off with no hope of being rehired. The employer then hired another batch of workers for another six months employment. Few workers were hired full time.

With no unemployment benefits and no savings, the unemployed worker applied for welfare. Their wives had not been encouraged to work. Most men did not qualify for welfare. If one owned a boat, a newer car, a vacation home up North and/or a little money in the bank, he was disqualified, even for food stamps. Men from Clark Equipment, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and other closed plants had never expected to find themselves in this situation. They were devastated, resulting in a few suicides.

Unions needed to help. In 1981, the United Labor Food Bank was formed. Its officers were local Union activists. By-laws were adopted and the hunt for food was on. Allotments were decided by family size. It would be a balanced diet, nothing fancy, just the basics. The Food Bank was located at the local UAW Labor Temple. We cobbled together shelving and started requesting donations. Bake sales at local plants as well as 50/50 drawings raised money.

Many of the men's wives did not know how to prepare basic foods. The problem surfaced when a donated fifty-pound bag of dried cranberry beans went unwanted. They didn't know how to cook them. To help, I wrote a small cookbook of basic recipes using Food Bank commodities.

After being elected Food Bank president, I applied for and receives a FEMA grant for $15,000.00. It was used to buy a semi­ trailer of basic foods from Meijers, Inc. in Grand Rapids. We stored it on the second floor of the Union Co-op Credit Union. It was unloaded by unemployed union workers. All were arranged on pallets in rows. Feeding 140 families each week, soon depleted it. We did not receive any other outside help, but we did somehow take care of our own.