On a June-gloom Sunday morning, the schoolyard of Divine Savior in L.A.'s Cypress Park neighborhood looks like the food staging area after the latest killer quake.

A couple of young Latinas and a middle-aged African American woman are making sandwiches, which cover a picnic table. One woman spreads out white bread in neat rows, another lays down a slice of yellow cheese, and the third tops off each sandwich with turkey.

Nearby, a 10-year-old boy named Charlie and an African American man in a baseball cap are going through boxes of peaches and oranges, tossing out any bad fruit.

At another table, a man in a white T-shirt is arranging cherry, kiwi strawberry and blue raspberry Kool-Aid drink packs and small bags of potato chips. His name is Sergio Negrete, founder and CEO of Giving Back Hope, Inc.

"I grew up in Cypress Park, in this parish, and used to see homeless people around here," the 43-year-old man recalls. "And my dream was to help the homeless ever since I was seven. It was just like something I had in my head. A passion."

Right idea, wrong route
Young Sergio prayed to God to help him become president of the United States so he could build a building to house and feed these down-and-out folks he felt so sorry for.

"But what happened? I went the wrong route with gangs and drugs," Negrete reports. "And I ended up homeless myself, off and on, due to drugs downtown. I was in a wheelchair because I was run over by a car. It broke one of my legs into little pieces and, on the other one, dislocated my hip and damaged the main nerve."

So at 26, he couldn't walk. He slept in alleys and scrounged for food. For 17 years, he was hooked on drugs, until going through detox and living at a recovery house. He's been clean now for a dozen years.

"I had a few years clean when I started this in 1999," Negrete reports. "And I asked three of my friends if they wanted to pitch in 20 bucks to make sack lunches. So it all started in a friend's house. And from there, we brought it here to the church.

"So I know both sides of being homeless," he adds. "And now I love doing this, you know, to make and give out the sack lunches. My goal is to be able to provide more services."

Every second Sunday of the month, for almost seven years, Negrete and his pals ---along with anybody else they can corral --- have been filling up paper bags with ham-and-cheese or turkey sandwiches, chips, fruit and juice, then bringing them down to skid row to hand out.

In July of 2004, the grassroots group was incorporated in California. Three months later, Giving Back Hope, Inc., held its first big event --- an outreach fair that blocked off 6th Street, between San Pedro Street and Gladys Avenue, downtown.

Treatment providers handed out information on the availability of beds at local recovery and treatment facilities. Speakers offered encouragement to addicts about getting off drugs and alcohol. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were served to 1,200 people by 90 volunteers.

A second community outreach fair was held last October on skid row, serving 1,600 meals and, again, offering consults and referrals to individuals struggling to change their lives. A third street fair will take place this October.

The community-based nonprofit is funded by donations from foundations, businesses and individuals.

Small works of mercy
While the annual high profile event's aim is to raise awareness of the growing number of Angelenos who go without food and shelter, the monthly sack lunch program remains decidedly low key --- drawing only 10 to 20 core volunteers every month.

People like Dr. Arnel Reyes, a family care physician at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in East L.A., who brought his two sons, Tristan, 9, and Austin, 7, with him on this overcast Sunday.

"I wanted them to see what their dad's been involved with the last few years and see why Daddy can't be there at all their games and functions," he says. "And I wanted them to see how we can serve God and to give back for whatever God's given us."

Reyes, who was on the board of Giving Back Hope, Inc., for four years, knows that with 30,000 homeless men, women and children living on L.A.'s skid row, the "homeless" problem seems intractable. But he also realizes how small works of mercy can add up to genuine societal change.

"I know just doing this one day a month is not going to feed all the homeless," he says. "But the way I see it, if everyone were to do a small part and not think about the quantity of the problem, but focus on the quality and small number we're helping, then you know that you're making a difference."

The physician, whose family belongs to Holy Family Church in South Pasadena, recalls that Sergio Negrete always had a clear vision of his outreach to the homeless. After they met at a medical clinic, the former addict and resident of skid row pleaded with him for help in getting Giving Back Hope, Inc., off the ground. He said this was his "calling in life," and that God had brought the two together for a special purpose.

So Reyes came on board, spearheading the group's effort to become a bona fide nonprofit with 501 (c) 3 status.

"We may not be as big as the Union Rescue Mission, but I think about St. Therese," he says. "And she always said that you can do the smallest and most humble thing. But if you do it, do it with the greatest amount of love. And this is what we're trying to do.

"Sergio is a very humble, giving man," he adds. "I know he's made a lot of sacrifices to do this, and that's one of the reasons why I've stuck with him. But this is not about Sergio or myself. This is about God's ministry."

250 lunches
With 250 lunches in brown paper bags, two vehicles drive out of Divine Savior's schoolyard on Sunday morning a little before ten o'clock, following Negrete's white Dodge Caravan to downtown.

First stop is the Union Rescue at 545 S. San Pedro. Negrete gets out of the van, goes over to a disheveled man sitting on the curb and hands him a paper bag. The young fruit sorter, Charlie Loya, and Negrete's 17-year-old daughter, Andrea, hand out lunches to mostly single men. One of the last to show up, a guy with a beard in a wheelchair, says, "Thank you, man."

After 10 minutes, it's on to St. Vincent's Cardinal Manning Center on gritty Winston Street, where a line forms immediately beside the van. This time, Reyes' two boys, Tristan and Austin, hand out the paper bags. At first, they seem apprehensive, avoiding eye contact with the homeless. But soon they're both into it, smiling as the men thank them.

By 10:30 a.m., there's not a single lunch left.

"I come down because I just like to help other people," says Andrea Negrete, who hasn't missed a second Sunday in three years. The 10th-grader at Franklin High School admits she's inspired by her dad, Sergio, who is a drug and alcohol counselor in Inglewood.

"It's different here 'cause they live in the street," she says. "I think people don't know how many poor people live down her. Because it surprised me."

To find out more about Giving Back Hope, Inc., or to support its ministry, write P.O. Box 31337; Los Angeles, CA 90031, or call (323) 394-1790.