The Valdosta Soup Kitchen had a little extra help Friday.

Approximately 20 volunteers, together with staff members from Sodexo, the contracted food service provider for Valdosta State University’s Blazer Dining, prepared and served the afternoon meal at the 601 N. Lee St. facility.

Sodexo prepares and serves food at the soup kitchen twice a year, the week of Thanksgiving and during the Sodexo Servathon in April, said Rich Yokeley, Blazer Dining’s general manager.

The Servathon is a month-long, company-sponsored program to raise awareness of the many people who struggle to put food on the table each day and to encourage employees to work to fight hunger in their communities. Projects include canned food drives, donations of surplus food, cleaning food banks, fund-raisers, and free training on food safety for food banks and homeless shelters, according to www.sodexo.com.

“Last week we raised 3,500 pounds of food, which will feed approximately 2,600 folks, so we had a very successful campaign drive,” Yokeley said.

Sodexo is the largest food service vendor in the world, Yokeley said.

“Hunger is real and alive in our community,” Yokeley said. “We’re really excited we’re getting so much participation from the campus this time around. It makes you feel good that you can come out and help others because you never know when you might need help yourself.”

Jaleesa Jones said she has volunteered in various community service projects since high school, and in four previous Sodexo campaigns. She said she does it because “it helps out the community and makes you feel better about yourself.”

Katie Thomas volunteered at the soup kitchen Friday as part of a VSU freshman seminar class, but said she really enjoys volunteering. The fact that it was offered as part of the class simply made it more convenient.

An older gentleman who ate at the soup kitchen Friday, and who agreed to be interviewed on condition that his name not be used in the story, said, “I’m not hiding from anybody, but this is a rather embarrassing, degrading situation. I’m not really ashamed to be out here, but I’m not proud of it either. I’m getting back on my feet.”

When asked about the quality of the food and service Friday, he said, “The volunteers were very nice and very courteous and the food was good and I couldn’t be any happier with it. I sat across the table in a soup kitchen in Chattanooga and this guy said, ‘How do they expect anybody to eat this slop?’ And I said, ‘I’ll tell you what, when you get up to the front and go to pay your bill you tell them that, and he had nothing else to say the rest of the meal.’ They don’t always serve exactly what I like. They can’t serve everything everybody likes. I don’t complain about it. I eat it and I’m thankful for it, whether I like it or not, and I’m glad to get something in my belly.”

After the event, Yokeley said they served lunch to a total of 176 people Friday.

The Sodexo Foundation, the charitable arm of Sodexo Inc., supports innovative programs to help children and families in the United States who are battling problems like poverty, unemployment, lack of education, and food insecurity.

From nutrition programs for children to job training for adults and affordable housing for families, the foundation supports hunger-related initiatives on local, state, and national levels, according to www.sodexo.com.

To learn more, visit www.sodexo.com or www.helpstophunger.org.