Hazel Merritt grinned. Fellow shoppers stared quizzically at her cart, piled high with pork loins and cans of green beans.

It was a lot of food for anyone, let alone a 92-year-old lady.

But Mrs. Merritt is well-practiced at making meals for the masses. She started cooking for her church 33 years ago, when Mann Memorial United Methodist Church started Operation Buddy.

It was inspired by a program of the same name in Atlanta, and has been an ongoing ministry at Mann since 1976.

On the first Wednesday of each month, busloads of hospitalized veterans from the Uptown Division of the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center come to the church off Milledgeville Road for supper.

Mrs. Merritt now leads the group, planning its menus, driving to Bi-Lo and carting the groceries home, where she prepares vats of dressing and beans.

Mrs. Merritt is a bargain shopper, able to stretch a church account with a few hundred dollars into monthly feasts for dozens of patients and hospital staff. She can feed as many as 50 diners for less than $1 a head.

Not that Mrs. Merritt finds it all that impressive. She recalls a story in the Bible where Jesus fed thousands of people with less.

On Wednesday, Mrs. Merritt set tables in the fellowship hall.

"Only the good china," she said.

She has help from a dozen volunteers, but the church is small. Sunday attendance averages about 60, the Rev. Brandon Fulmer said.

He assumed pastoral duties there a year ago. Mrs. Merritt made quite a first impression.

"She was go, go, go. You don't meet many 90-year-old ladies doing as much as Mrs. Hazel. You don't meet many people half her age doing as much as Mrs. Hazel," he said.

She continues to make an impression with the veterans, said Tom Harris, a recreation therapist who has brought veterans to the church for 20 years.

"She's community for them," Mr. Harris said. "It gets them out of the hospital and a home-cooked meal. You can tell she loves it. It's in her heart. It's what keeps her going."

James W. Green, 80, is a retired master sergeant who looks forward to the visits with Mrs. Merritt.

"She's a grandmother and a mother all in one," he said. "I don't know what the church would do with out her."

Mrs. Merritt has no plans of stopping.

"I don't want to give it up. It's too important," she said. "I have an aunt in Thomson who lived to 103. She baked cakes until she was way up in her 90s. I think I took after her."

Then she laughed, saying it's not like she's got too much else on her plate at 92. She's mother to four, grandmother to seven, and great-grandmother to another seven. Her husband, Wesley Daniel Merritt, died 14 years ago.

Her family still comes for Sunday dinners at Mrs. Merritt's house.

"I fix the veterans what I'd fix my own family. I just have an old way of doing things," Mrs. Merritt said. "They appreciate it so much. They never go out without a thank you, thank you. They come in with such smiles on their face. It's just a happy little group. It's real rewarding."

Too often, she said, people hear of needs in the community but do nothing.

"We wanted to do something about it," Mrs. Merritt said. "It's a little church we have here but there's a lot of mission work going on there, and all these years, they've let me be a part of it."

Reach Kelly Jasper at (706) 823-3552 or kelly.jasper@augustachronicle.com.