(NewsNation) — A group of rural churches in Texas are using the space that is left unused during the week to support their communities’ childcare needs.

In 2019, that group launched the “We Love All God’s Children” initiative to support the health and well-being of kids, including ways to establish childcare centers at rural churches — where options can be limited for parents and guardians.

“It’s something that these communities desperately, desperately need,” said Rev. Jill Daniel, who serves as the Director of the We Love All God’s Children program at the conference.

Nearly two-thirds of children of working parents in rural communities don’t have access to formal childcare facilities, according to a 2021 study.

But one thing these rural areas do tend to have is places of worship.

“A church is typically built with enough separate classrooms already with enough sinks and toilets, typically, already, so a church is just a natural fit for a childcare center, just the building itself in the typical, traditional way that churches are built,” Daniel said.

The Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church — which kicked off the initiative — has worked with 14 churches to open up childcare centers on their premises. The centers are staffed with church employees, and the conference helps them walk through the licensing process.

The childcare centers are financed through fees that parents pay, but the conference helps the churches with a range of startup costs.

“We pay for everything from the first box of crayons to the largest piece of playground equipment and we help them by paying the first quarter of their staff salary and the first six months of their director salary,” Daniels said.

They also receive support from the state. Any parent who qualifies for free or reduced lunch in public schools also qualifies for a subsidy that will help them pay for their childcare costs.

So far, childcare providers look after an estimated 875 children among the 14 churches across the state.

The church centers face similar challenges as traditional daycares. Daniel said that retaining employees can be a challenge with high turnover rates, especially in the current post-pandemic environment. She also noted that inflation has made the cost of groceries and classroom supplies soar.

But Daniel argued one reason the churches are well-suited to the task of doing childcare is that they can also be community hubs. She pointed to a range of activities the childcare centers have engaged in, ranging from helping with community food distribution to a free spring break camp.

“In the churches when you have this childcare…it just lends itself to other partnerships that start to blossom out through the community depending on what’s in your neighborhood,” she said.