BRADENTON, Fla. — Manatee County residents showed their support for people in need this past weekend, helping to fill 14 Manatee County School District buses with 84,050 pounds of food as part of a "Stuff the Bus" event.

The buses were parked in front of 14 Manatee County Publix supermarkets on Saturday, and in front of The Food Bank of Manatee on Sunday.

“I am feeling total joy,” Cindy Sloan, director of The Food Bank, told reporters for Bradenton.com. “What this confirms is that the generosity of Manatee County residents is great. They just donated their hearts out.”

Manatee County School District organized a group of volunteers to get the food into the buses and over to the food bank. District athletes, coaches and members of its junior high ROTC team were among the people who helped.

“People said they appreciated us being there,” Lori Cones, an accounting clerk in the school district’s vehicle maintenance department, told the news source.

Cones, along with transportation coordinator Terri Dingler and administrative secretary Dorothy Braun, came up with the idea to use the district’s school buses to collect food last year.