The snow and days of missed school were mounting. Below-zero temperatures were plunging.

It was becoming apparent going into the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend that families would be going most of a week without their children being able to benefit from their regular free school meals.

So LINC and the Kansas City Public Schools quickly rallied to provide some relief on Saturday, Jan. 13.

The district’s security opened Central High School, the kitchen team cooked a hot cafeteria meal and LINC brought in support staff and packaged up take-home meals from its after-school program.

Even though windchills in the blowing snow were as harsh as 20 degrees below zero, more than 70 adults and children came out to the school, many sitting and warming in the cafeteria as they ate, and then taking food packages with them to have at home.

“It is a real loss when you have unexpected days off,” LINC Caring Communities Director Sean Akridge said to a KMBC Channel 9 news photographer who came to see the emergency operation.

“Families have to spend more money to feed their children from funds that would’ve have been allocated otherwise in the household,” he said. “We’re really proud and happy to be able to do this.”