BY THEA JARVIS

The Friends of St. Martin de Porres, an organization which feed the homeless and fills crisis needs within the community, has been awarded a $5,000 grant from the Bonner Foundation in Princeton, N.J.

The grant is issued in two $12,500 payments and is designated for food purchases. The first installment was received by Friends of St. Martin in November, 1990; the second is due in April, 1991.

The Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation, Inc., and its Crisis Ministry Initiative supports local congregations and coalitions of churches and synagogues by helping people in crisis. As defined by the foundation, crisis ministry includes programs that distribute food, clothing and emergency supplies to people in need. Grants are not awarded to non-church related programs.

The Friends of St. Martin de Porres began in 1983 when a small group of volunteers from Holy Cross church in the Chamblee area “started serving barley soup and sandwiches at St. Anthony’s shelter,” said Bunny Bohaczyk, who has headed the Friends for the past eight years. Their efforts spread to the Atlanta Women and Children’s Shelter, where they helped provide clothing, meals and “things the girls needed,” Mrs. Bohaczyk said.

In 1984, the group presented a parish variety show, which netted $3,500 for the shelter.

“We got them 100 beds, set them up with sheets, pillows, blankets, towels,” Mrs. Bohaczyk remembered, adding that the entertainment has become an annual event at Holy Cross.

More recently, the Friends of St. Martin have been serving Sunday meals to the homeless at Woodruff Park in Atlanta. With large quantities of food and gallons of coffee, hot chocolate, ice water or juice, they are able to feed close to 500 people on the one day most local shelters and soup kitchens are closed.

In addition to their work with the homeless, Friends of St. martin prepare boxes of food for distribution to the needy as far south as Americus, and as close to home as the Marietta Shelter for Men. Other institutions benefiting from the outreach include Nicholas House, AID Atlanta, Mt. Carmel A.M.E. Church, Marian Manor, Moreland Avenue Baptist Women and Children’s Shelter and the network Food Bank.

Although the Friends of St. Martin de Porres began in a Catholic community, the group has grown to include volunteers from non-Catholic congregations as well. Friends of St. Martin have also been founded at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Kennesaw and St. Andrew’s Church in Roswell. Headquartered in Holy Cross church’s paneled assembly room, the organization’s relaxed surroundings reflect the hands-on approach the Friends bring to their work.

Donations of food, staples from Atlanta’s Community Food Bank and individual donors keep things moving forward.

“We go to Kroger every day,” said Mrs. Bohaczyk, “ and twice a week to American Fare” for breads, rolls and sometimes “a case of eggs or hot dogs” the stores might throw in.

For the past two years, she explained, the Atlanta Country Club has donated thousands of dollars worth of food that “would have been thrown out” had it not been given to the poor.

“God has been good to us,” she said. “I’ve never seen it to fail: when there’s been a need, there’s been an answer.”