DESPITE its name, the Matthew Talbot soup van has never really been about the food.

Still, it feeds plenty of needy people. On a typical night, van volunteers will dish up sandwiches, soup and hot and cold drinks to 110 clients.

But while the service delivers 45,500 meals each year to residents of Footscray and surrounding suburbs, the volunteers know what their clients are really hungry for: social contact.

As the van's committee president Peter Sam sums up: "Most of our clients aren't there just for the food; it's for the conversation and support. They look at us as their link to the outside world."

Everyone's story of how and why they need the van is different. But volunteers say that drug and alcohol abuse, gambling and family breakdown are common themes.

Essendon resident Ken Solomon, 75, has been volunteering with the van for 14 years. "Sometimes, we're the only people who some [clients] see throughout the entire week and they look forward to the visit," he said. "You enjoy a conversation about current affairs, and the football. It's quite important they have someone they can relate to.

"We're not invasive; we wait until they volunteer details about their private life. But it's a chance for them to reveal something about their life and circumstances, which can be quite therapeutic."

If the van service has taught him anything, Mr Solomon says it is that family is the most important thing in a person's life. "Regardless of your differences, stick close to your family, because in the long run the family is there to support you when things go wrong."

While many of the faces change, some clients have been accessing the van service since day one. Mr Sam thinks that today, more than ever, the van and its smiling volunteers are needed. "I find especially in these times, with the global financial crisis and issues with housing and so forth, there's an even greater need for it."