A community food drive was organized Sunday in Lockport to help families during a historic federal government shutdown that has led to court battles over food assistance funding.

The food drive outside the Lockport Township High School East Campus was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., but people lined up as early as 7 a.m., according to Angela Adolf, director of development and executive director of the Lockport Township High School 205 Foundation.

“I think the concern was if they weren’t here early, they wouldn’t get anything,” Adolf said.

Volunteers braved frigid weather, with temperatures in the low 30s, as they handed out hundreds of bags of groceries and cartons of eggs to drivers who passed through the parking lot.

In just 10 days, the foundation organized the food drive that gathered about $25,000 worth of food and about $8,000 in cash donations. Adolf said 25 businesses and 80 community members “put their hands up to support and help.”

“I think it’s just great when the community can come together when there’s a need. It’s showing the best parts of us,” Adolf said. “I keep telling my own team that it’s great that the high school can be like a good thread to knit our community together.”

Sunday’s food drive was meant to provide short-term assistance to families affected by the uncertainty over funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Food pantries have seen rising demand when SNAP benefits were recently cut off for almost 42 million Americans because of the ongoing federal government shutdown.

The closure, which began Oct. 1, has become the longest in U.S. history.

A coalition of attorneys general and governors has sued President Donald Trump’s administration in order to restore SNAP benefits during the shutdown.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday temporarily paused court orders to fully fund SNAP benefits in response to an emergency appeal from the Trump administration.

The Trump administration recently demanded states to “undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits” for November, according to the Associated Press.

The Lockport Township High School Foundation has partnered with ShareFest Will County for donation giveaways and food distribution.

However, Adolf said it has never done a food drive “specifically like this before.”

“This is very different. This was specifically as kind of a response to the SNAP benefits going away,” she said.

Adolf said the foundation is planning on more community food drives in the future.

“We would like it to be in other locations.”