A small group of teachers and volunteers walked around a tiled gym at East Side Elementary School on Wednesday, using push brooms to gather up fallen bits of carrots, potatoes and food packaging scraps.
The room faintly smelled like an open-air fresh market as the workers cleaned up what little remained of the 16,000 pounds of food they had just handed out to the families of students there.
It's a familiar scene at East Side, a school that plays host to a food giveaway program called the Mobile Pantry in partnership with the Chattanooga Area Food Bank.
"It's the craziest hour and a half of every month," said Kelsey Huynh, a teacher who helped spearhead the program's introduction.
Huynh and other employees at the school began coordinating with the Food Bank a little more than a year ago to support their school's families by providing free boxes of food to anyone needing a little help.
For some families, that little bit of help can go a long way. The school is situated in the middle of a food desert - an area where no food grocery stores are available - and 98 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, meaning they are considered economically disadvantaged by state measures.
"There was easily a line of 300-400 people standing outside today before we started, just waiting to get in," Huynh said. "They truly just need the extra support."
Stephanie Hinton, the school's principal, said the program fits in with the vision she and teachers have for the school, which has posted stunning academic growth numbers according to data from the 2014-2015 school year.
"My entire philosophy about school is to have an open door. We try to ensure that East Side is a family school." she said. "We want to meet the needs of the whole child."
Aside from helping ensure that the students have full bellies and minds ready to learn at school, Hinton said there are other benefits to the program - it's another opportunity for parents, teachers and students to be in the same room and open lines of communication.
"It's important to have parents' support, period," Hinton said.
Part of gaining that support is showing that teachers care, and parents seem to appreciate the effort they're putting into their students.
Galdino Chavez works at a restaurant on the North Shore to support his four children and said through a translator that seeing the work of his children's teachers has empowered and encouraged him to go above and beyond, as well.
"The teachers are not only helping their children academically, they're helping the families economically, and it makes me want to pay it forward," he said. "Watching how the teachers unite as a team - if I see other children that are struggling also, like a neighbor, I see I can help them just as easily as the teachers are helping me."
And the food certainly helps, too.
Perla Jara is a stay-at-home mother who, while holding 4-year-old daughter Karina, said the box of food she gets is a helpful boost.
"Every little bit helps, and it's needed now more than ever," she said. Families may not want to admit it, but it's a reality. People are losing jobs and prices are going up.
She said she receives a good amount of fresh produce every time, as well as non-perishables like canned foods, which she can prepare as she needs, and she gets to meet her children's parents in the process.
"You get to meet them, form relationships, and you get to find out what else is going on in the school. I know it's not logistically easy to do this every month," she said.
Her daughter, Karina, will be joining her older siblings at the school next year, but in the meantime, she's more focused on the treats she gets to dig out of the box each month. Especially the fruit.
Her favorite?
"Apples."
Contact staff writer Emmett Gienapp at egienapp@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6731. Follow on Twitter @emmettgienapp.