Sergeant Audie Murphy Club members, Fort Gordon Soldiers, volunteers, and members of the Concerned Women’s Inc. spent much of their Saturday morning preparing food, cleaning tables and setups to serve meals to anyone who enters the doors of the newly built Master’s Table Soup Kitchen in downtown Augusta, Ga.M

ore than 380 people were served a free noontime meal in keeping with the Golden Harvest Food Bank’s goal of making sure everyone receives a meal to eat bringing attention to the issue of

hunger and solving a problem with food.

The Master’s Table Soup Kitchen, hosted by the Golden Harvest Food Bank, is operated by volunteer organizations that donate their time, cater meals, clean facilities for a hungry individual to enjoy a fulfilling meal. Open at noon everyday of the year, a different organization hosts guests to a freshly made meal from scratch. Since the opening of the new and larger dining facility for the soup kitchen, it was a first for the Concerned Women’s Inc. volunteers to cater in the newly built soup kitchen on their given day of the year.

Five-year-old Trévian T. White sleeps the soup kitchen floor after all meals were served Saturday. “The new soup kitchen is a learning experience,” said Arthur Sanders, president and founder of the Concerned Women’s Inc. The challenge was trying to learn how to best serve the people. There are more physically seated people all at one time and just overall, the structure layout is just much bigger.”

Compared to the old soup kitchen, which seated about 40, the new soup kitchen seats 120 at one time requiring twice as many people to help cook, clean, serve and take a head count at the door.

Providing assistance were Soldiers from Fort Gordon and members of the Sergeant Audie Murphy Club, who started the morning by moving supplies from the old soup kitchen location to the new one down the street.

Staff Sgt. Michael Rosas serves a tray of food so guests don’t have to carry their own. Food was prepped or stored in refrigerators, freezers, or placed in cooking cauldrons for meals to be ready by noon. Tables were wiped off and settings with napkins were placed.

“Without them [the military] today, we would not have made it,” said Sanders.

Soldiers like Staff Sgt. Michael Rosas has helped similar organizations on a smaller scale when he was stationed in Hawaii.

To Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Eberwein, “at first I was apprehensive about it, cautious, and later I found out this is pretty easy.”

Five-year-old Trévian T. White helped out his father by sweeping the floor after their guests were gone and clean up had begun. To Trévian, he realizes he’s helping out others in need and most of all helps because he likes working with his dad.
Staff Sgt. Joseph Alvarez carries meals to waiting guests at the soup kitchen downtown Augusta, Ga.
Staff Sgt. Robert Hayes preps a bowl of mixed fruit as Bea Sanders watches his progress while preparing food at the Mater’s Table Soup Kitchen Saturday.
Staff Sgt. Jermaine Allen stirs mixed corn in one of the larger cooking platforms at the newly built soup kitchen in downtown.
Members of the Sergeant Audie Murphy Club help unload a truck of supplies for the new Golden Harvest Food Bank soup kitchen downtown.