A food bank in Texas is overflowing with cars and hungry families looking for their next meal in desperate times ... and the line to get grub looks like a parking lot.

The sobering scene played out Thursday in San Antonio, where the city's food bank prepared to serve 6,000 families at Trader's Village ... and then an extra 4,000 households showed up with their hands out.

The line to get the free food and the overwhelming demand were more than officials expected for San Antonio's fourth drive-thru food distribution giveaway. Some folks even got in line the night before the 10 AM event, and as you can see, that was a savvy decision.

Fortunately, everyone was served and no one was turned away ... all they had to do was wait for hours in their cars in the sweltering Texas heat.

The food bank says it hasn't seen this large a line or this big of a crisis in 25 years ... and it's all because of the coronavirus, which has put about 10% of the country's workforce out of work and closed schools, which feed lots of kids.

And, get this .... the food bank says it distributed over a million pounds of food, and it's gonna need federal or state aid to keep operating. Jeff Bezos is donating $100 million to stock our nation's food banks, but it sounds like they need a lot more help.