For many low-income families, school breakfasts and lunches are often the only meals these children receive.

Less than a dozen people dropped off a lot of food at Lake Gibson Church of the Nazarene Saturday morning.  Kenny Hunt was one of them.

“There’s a lot of hardship families out there ... And putting them out of school for a couple of weeks where they get their meals makes it tough on them,” said Hunt.

It’s the reason Mandy Stock planned the food drive at the church, located at 6868 N. Socrum Loop Road in Lakeland.

“I didn’t want a baby to go hungry. I know that God is good and he will find ways to provide,” said Stock, the church’s Family Ministries Leader.

The food will go to Padgett Elementary to supplement its efforts as one of the district’s food sites. School lunches will be distributed there Tuesday through Friday during the first week the students have off.

Stock worries about the kids who have no way to get there.

“There is concern because a lot of it is, even these school sites that will be open for food, the students have to walk there. If they’re being watched by older brothers and sisters or if families can’t drive them there or they can' walk to the school site, they’re not going to have access to that food,” said Mandy Stock.

The church will continue to accept food Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the first week the students have off.

Polk County Public Schools has set up 31 school lunch distribution sites. They’ll be open 11 a.m. to noon.

Students are out of school until March 30.

--This story was originally published by Bay 9 News in Tampa Bay, Florida