On Monday morning, about 25 teachers gathered in the otherwise empty lunchroom at Moores Mill Intermediate School in Madison County.

The halls at the school were quiet, the classrooms dark. The teachers weren’t supposed to be working. It was the first day that all Alabama public schools were shuttered in an effort to keep coronavirus at bay.

But in the sunny cafeteria, voices echoed as teachers and counselors – now working as community volunteers – loaded lunchroom tables with plastic sacks of shelf-stable snacks.

As schools close across the state and the country, students who relied on schools to provide breakfast and lunch each day are cut off from that safety net.

Some school districts are working to make food available for students, but nonprofits are also stepping in to provide food for students and families for the next few weeks. Maybe longer.

Read more: Alabama schools offer meals to students

The Moores Mill teachers gathered Monday to deliver bags of food that were donated by the community, packed by a local church and organized by the county-wide nonprofit Lunches of Love program.

“The teachers are volunteering their time,” said Jenda Hillis, a teacher at the school who also works with Lunches of Love. “They don’t have to do this, but they care about their kids.”

Elsewhere around the state, nonprofits like the United Way are working to increase food supply services to low-income families. The United Way operates a 211 call center to connect families with resources they need. Anyone can dial 211 to be connected to food or other assistance.

The Alabama Food Bank Association said food banks around the state are working with partner groups to gather extra food in anticipation of a waiver from the USDA to allow schools to provide meals or food packs to students in a non-congregate way during the outbreak.

Lunches of Love, which launched a decade ago, already delivers weekly food bags each Friday to about 1,100 students in 30 schools across Madison County and surrounding areas. Those bags are designed to feed students over a weekend.

When the word came that schools would be closing, they partnered with a local food donation effort on Facebook to organize and collate donations from locals in the community who were eager to help students who needed meals.

A few hours after the group created a Facebook event organizing food dropoff locations and a bag-packing schedule, the event ballooned to 1,000 members “and more food than we could imagine,” said Zach Beamon, director of operations at Mission Firefly, a religious nonprofit that operates the Lunches of Love program. “It’s been crazy these last two days.”

Beamon said when he arrived at one of the bag-packing events on Sunday, he expected to see three or four volunteers.

“There were literally 50 or 60 people there and I didn’t know any of them,” he said. “It has been truly amazing.”

The food is being collated into bags designed to last a student the first three weeks of the school shutdown. The bags are organized by school, and then delivered to students who were previously receiving weekend food bags.

But because schools shut down so abruptly, there wasn’t time to get the bags to the students this week. So teams of volunteers are driving out to students’ homes to deliver the bags personally.

“I can’t speak highly enough of the schools and teachers in Madison County,” said Zach Beamon, director of operations at Mission Firefly, a religious nonprofit that operates the Lunches of Love program. “They have jumped on board and created teams to deliver food to families. It’s been really neat to watch everybody work together for kids.”

Teachers gather at Moores Mill Intermediate School in Madison County on March 16, 2020, to organize and deliver food bags to students. After Alabama schools closed in response to the coronavirus outbreak, community volunteers are stepping in to make sure they get meals. (Anna Claire Vollers / avollers@al.com)

On Monday morning, sixth grade math teachers Katie Arnold and Andrea Perry were loading bags into the back of Perry’s SUV outside Moores Mill Intermediate School. They cracked math jokes about the most efficient way to pack the bags into the trunk.

“I think it’s important that we understand there’s a need in our community,” said Perry. “I can’t imagine if you are struggling financially as a family, and then a service you need is cut off.”

Lunches of Love will continue to collect food donations through the middle of the week, and has listed current donation and volunteer needs in its Facebook group.

Here are our live updates on the public health crisis in Alabama. You can find all of our coronavirus stories here.