A local organization is making sure children have food to eat over the weekend.

The kidsPACK organization is providing meals for children all over Central Florida.

At a local Lakeland church, fruit cups, snacks and breakfast food were all divided and packed up. The packaged meals have two breakfasts, two lunches and two dinners. Donors and volunteers help keep the kidsPACK charity going.

Paris Cousins said she became a volunteer with the kidsPACK charity after she heard about the need.

“When I found out that my children were going to school with children who didn’t have anything to eat on the weekends it broke my heart,” Cousins said.

What’s even more heartbreaking for these volunteers is the growing number of children who don’t have guaranteed meals once school gets out on Fridays.

“There’s a huge need for it. Just in Polk County alone there’s over 2,400 children that are registered as homeless and many more that don’t have reliable food sources on the weekend,” kidsPACK volunteer Jared Hatcher said.

Cousins said the amount of children who don’t have meals is surprising but she understands.

“With the economy and job loss, it’s kind of... I do understand it but it’s still, it’s heartbreaking to know that there’s so many young children who are going without when they’re at home,” Cousins said.

The organization has packing sites all over the county each week. Once the meals are packed they go off to the schools and to the homes of the children who need it most.