Southeast Community Services’ Fountain Square Center sports freshly painted walls, creative murals, new landscaping and an expanded and stocked food pantry, thanks to 150 volunteers.

The recent one-day venture to give the center at 901 Shelby St. a face-lift jump-started a partnership between Southeast Community Services and ARAMARK, a professional-services company.

“This is not just a day, this is a relationship,” said Terri Garcia, Southeast’s executive director, on the morning of Aug. 12, as the volunteer workers who are employees of ARAMARK arrived in buses.

Among the volunteers was Benjamin Eickstead, a Perry Township resident, who is the assistant ARAMARK food service director at the Pendleton Correctional Facility.

“I like it a lot, any time you can come out to help your community,” said Eickstead of his volunteer effort.

He spent the day as one of the volunteer landscapers, assembling new park benches and flower boxes, planting flowers and plants, and painting the curb in a no-parking area bright red.

Supplies used in the effort to spruce up Southeast were donated by ARAMARK, its employees and clients.

Bev Dribin, vice president of community relations for ARAMARK, said the company’s ongoing partnership with Southeast will include providing expertise to help Southeast fulfill its goals to help area residents in need of assistance.

Southeast is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to increasing self-sufficiency for low-income residents in the central city. The University of Indianapolis and HealthNet Services uses space in Southeast’s Fountain Square Center in a collaborative arrangement.

Eight members of City Year’s youth services corps spent three days doing preparation work, including taping, tarping and supply arranging, so that the ARAMARK volunteers could begin the one-day cleanup effort at Southeast promptly.

ARAMARK is a global food service, facilities management and work apparel company, which provides food services at Eli Lilly and Co. and Butler University, among other customers.

“We will be helping by using our nutrition and culinary expertise,” said Dribin of some of the ways the Southeast-ARAMARK partnership will be beneficial.

She said ARAMARK’S nutritional knowledge can help low-income residents with their health, and the culinary expertise can help them with work opportunities in the food-service field.

The partnership is the first in Indiana.

ARAMARK’s Building Community initiative also has arranged partnerships with community centers in 22 other U.S. cities, London and Toronto.