BATON ROUGE - On any given day, the St. Vincent de Paul dining hall serves meals to between 200 and 400 people. This Thanksgiving, they're expecting these crowds to double in size. 

Denise Terrance has worked in the dining hall for 20 years. As director, she's in charge of planning meals and making sure nothing goes to waste. Ahead of the holiday season, she's asking those who donate to "think outside of the can." 

"When you go in the grocery store you think yeah, well canned goods are fine but sometimes you forget about the salt, the Tony Chachere's, the granulated garlic. Those are the items that give it that extra flavor and those are the items that we don't get a lot of," Terrance said.

All donations large and small are appreciated. Terrance says, that when coming to donate, people should think of things they'd need for their own Thanksgiving meal and multiply it by ten. 

"Everything that you use at home to make your dinner special, we use here to make our dinner special for our guests," she said.

On top of a hot meal with dessert, everyone who stops by St. Vincent de Paul receives a brown bagged meal with a sandwich and snacks on their way out to ensure they won't go hungry for the rest of the day. With so many people to serve, donations are always needed, especially around the holidays. 

St. Vincent de Paul accepts donations Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The group's website can be found here.

The Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank is also in need of non-perishable canned proteins, fruits and vegetables, grains and soups. More information can be found here.