Martha King, better known as Missionary Mac or just Mrs. Mac, has been using her energy to bless this community for years, people say.

She retired from General Motors seven years ago and says she “is heading into her 60s.”

“I could go somewhere and sit down, but that’s not Ms. Mac,” she said. “I do a lot of mettling.”

She’s a street club president. She organizes an annual retreat in East Cleveland for women from a domestic violence shelter. She cooks almost 100 Thanksgiving meals for homebound seniors every year. And now Mrs. Mac has opened a restaurant inside artist Ed Parker’s Snickerfritz Arts Complex at 13240 Euclid Ave.

“I’m just try to be a blessing to this community,” she said.

Community organizers are hoping the community blesses Mrs. Mac right back.

Northeast Ohio Alliance for Hope, a non-profit, community collaborative, is encouraging the community to spend money at the restaurant. The group organized a “money bomb” at the restaurant last month. Organizers sent emails and made phone calls encouraging people to visit the restaurant on June 15 and spend at least $10. More than 100 people responded to the call. A steady stream of patrons filled the restaurant that day.

Organizer Brad Davy, with Northeast Ohio Alliance for Hope, said: “Locally-owned

businesses help build strong communities. Mrs. Mac is a perfect example of that. She dedicates her time, her money and her resources back to the community.”

Small businesses like Mrs. Mac’s restaurant create jobs, too, and they tend to hire people from the community, Davy said.

“In a small way that can put cities like East Cleveland back to work,” Davy said. “The jobs crisis is big. We need multiple solutions to get people back to work.”

Trevelle Harp, executive director of Northeast Ohio Alliance for Hope, said residents “can be part of the solution” by spending money at locally owned businesses.

“We must invest in ourselves, if we don’t, no one will,” Harp said.

Mrs. Mac was thrilled to have a full house at her restaurant. She fell in love with cooking as a child growing up in Glenville. The food she cooks is in honor of those days gone by.

Her layer cake with jelly and white icing is called “Mama And Dem” because it’s the kind of cake her mama used to make. When she served at the restaurant recently, Ms. Mac said, a man started to cry.

“I ain’t seen a cake like this in 40 years,” he said.

She also serves a chocolate cake dubbed “Black Beauty,” and an angel food cake called “The Wedding” because “it tastes like a wedding in your mouth.”

There is catfish, tilapia, perch and oven-roasted chicken on the menu, too. But, said Mrs. Mac, “Go to Popeye’s if you want that fried stuff.”

Mrs. Mac accepts call-in orders at 216-323-8426.

For more information about Northeast Ohio Alliance for Hope, go to www.noahorganizing.org or call 216-834-2324.