AUGUSTA, Ga. ()- The Salvation Army of Augusta is calling on the community to help meet a critical need at its Center of Hope soup kitchen.

The soup kitchen has a small team, and they are desperately needing additional volunteers to gear up for the busy season.

They are also seeking donations of ready-to-serve meals for clients and community members so the less fortunate can continue to have access to consistent food.

The shelter provides dinner for about 70 clients staying at the shelter and 40 to-go meals for neighbors in need.

The organization encourage anyone to volunteer and fill in open shifts or apply to fill the open positions.

“We are hiring a full time head cook and we are hiring a part time cook. But every day we allow six volunteers to come into our kitchen. It’s not a huge kitchen, but we do make do. And so we’re asking, you know, if that’s a church group or a civic group or, you know, just a group of friends. There’s plenty of space for y’all to come. If you have a group that’s even a little bit bigger than six people we could probably make some adjustments to,” said Marketing and PR manager for the Salvation Army of Augusta, Janelys Villalta.

She also said they are needing restaurants and businesses to help with providing ready to go meals.

“So we’re really encouraging restaurants and local business leaders who have the means to buy, you know, upwards of 100 ready to go meals for that. That looks like, you know, a pan of mac and cheese or a pan of broccoli that you can get from a catering company or a restaurant. And we just kind of pop it in to our heaters and we serve it to the clients. And so that’s kind of what that looks like.”

You can sign up for daily shifts from 3:30-6:30 p.m, assisting with meal prep, serving, and clean-up.

Click here for more information.

Photojournalist: Dania Alawir