BATON ROUGE - St. Vincent de Paul of Baton Rouge hosted its annual Christmas lunch community giveaway on Thursday, providing many in need with a hot meal.

"Things are a little different this year. We're really excited because this year we're offering table service. So we're serving about 2,100 of our neighbors across the Baton Rouge area," St. Vincent de Paul CEO Sunnie Johnson-Lain said.

She says that Christmas is her favorite day of the year because it brings together all of their volunteers and St. Vincent de Paul staff to continue its mission of serving the public.

More than 100 volunteered for the giveaway.

"Over 100 on campus, and then we also have another remote feeding program where meals are going out throughout the community. We have about 50 there. Baton Rouge is such a giving community, and this is a really special reminder," Johnson-Lain said.

Several of the volunteers have been working at the event for years.

"It's the gift of giving, and my mom always told us to help and give back to the community, and it just makes me happy to see other people happy and eating on a holiday," third-year volunteer Nia Boykins said.

Others were volunteering for the first time.

"Our family is out of town, so we wanted to do something to give back, and this was a good volunteer opportunity," first-year volunteer Janet Lentz said.

St. Vincent de Paul told WBRZ that it hosts meal giveaway events for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.

"We know that many people go through difficult times at different stages of their lives, and we want to be able to help," volunteer David Lentz said.

Volunteers served a Christmas meal of turkey, green beans, rice, bread, sweet potatoes, and, new this year, a dessert bar.

After they were finished eating, people could grab a to-go bag.