Members of a Southeastside church hope a massive food drive and an Easter basket giveaway can help some of their neighbors through rough economic times.

More than 1,000 worshippers attended Easter services at the Church of ACTS, 3700 block of South Dearborn Street, on Sunday. After Sunday school, nearly 300 children ages 2 to 10 rushed to nab Easter baskets filled with chocolate crosses and other sweets.

Youth Coordinator Cheri Gable, 37, Indianapolis, estimated as many as one-fourth of the kids might not have received any Easter treats this year if it weren’t for the church’s giveaway.

“Our main goal is to reach out to the community with the Gospel of Jesus,” Gable said. “We want to meet their physical and spiritual needs. With the problems with the economy and people losing their jobs, people are thankful for all the help they can get.”

Gable said church members gave the remaining dozen or so Easter baskets to children who live in a nearby low-income apartment complex.

Hundreds of the mostly middle- and working-class parishioners were on hand Saturday for the church’s food giveaway, some loading groceries into vehicles and others accepting the donations of food. Volunteers handed out nearly 10,000 pounds of groceries to about 1,500 families.

“We weren’t supposed to start until 10 a.m., but we had so many people lined up, we started handing out food by 9:10 a.m.,” Gable said. “All the food was given away by 11 a.m. It went by so quickly.”

Gable said there were still dozens of cars in line when the last box of food was given away. People were so grateful for the food, provided by Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, local businesses and congregation donations, that some actually cried, Gable said.

Many said they would return to attend services.

“I’ve got daughters with kids living with me, so trying to survive in this economy, trying to survive on your own is a little bit harder,” Deanna Johnson told The Star’s newsgathering partner, WTHR (Channel 13). “So we’ve merged as a family, and living together, it’s hard feeding a large household.”

Grocery giveaways aren’t new for the church, whose food pantry has provided staples to families for most of its 20 years. Gable estimated that the church gave away more than 150,000 pounds of food last year.