TYLER, Texas (KETK) — Rain or shine, Green Acres Baptist Church and East Texas Food Bank partnered up to provide more than a thousand holiday meal boxes to families in need on Monday morning.

The food distribution event, Feed Our Friends, was hosted at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler. The event started at 9 a.m. and was open to anyone who could make it.

Samuel Sadler, the local mission’s director at Green Acres, shared how the event is geared to reach those in the community that are in need. The church brought out about 160 volunteers to line up cars, direct traffic and load meal boxes into vehicles.

“To put on something this massive, but we’re looking to serve a little over 1,400 families with a holiday meal,” said Samuel Sadler with Green Acres Baptist Church.

Each Thanksgiving box provides enough food for a family of four.

“Shelf stable milk, they have canned goods, beans and providing everyone a chicken as well,” CEO of East Texas Food Bank David Emerson said.

One East Texan who came to the event is caring for his sister and mother and this distribution will have a huge impact on his family’s Thanksgiving plans this year.

“Oh, I know they’re going to be happy,” Canton resident Kenneth Stiles said. “Thanksgiving is going to be slim this year so anything would help. All I can do is give God his praise. It’s amazing all of the people I see out here, there must be thousands of people here.”

Each family took home a chicken, green beans, mac and cheese and other shelf-stable foods.

“The heart behind all of this and all of the volunteers that you see is that Christ loved us first, and from that overflow, we want to love on our community,” Sadler said.

The CEO of East Texas Food Bank said not only are they fighting hunger, but also feeding hope.

“One in five children in East Texas are food insecure, one in three single moms is food insecure,” Emerson said.

If someone needs food now, click here, scroll to the bottom of the web page and type in your area information for assistance near you.