Members of the Octorara Junior-Senior High School field hockey team will hold a food drive to benefit the Octorara Area Food Cupboard (OAFC) on Saturday, July 9, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Dutch-Way Farm Market, 365 Route 41, Gap.

Shoppers will be offered a list of needed items when they enter the store, and they can then drop off their donations as they exit. The items that will be collected will be used by the OAFC to put together food bags for school-age children, which will help provide food for them during the summer months when school is not in session. The nonperishable food that the pantry needs includes canned pasta products, individual cereal boxes, granola bars, peanut butter crackers and toaster pastries.

"The food cupboard will have a trailer on-site, and they will come get (the donations)," noted parent volunteer Jenny Alexander of the Octorara Field Hockey Boosters Club, which is helping with the effort.

Due to low supplies, the OAFC is currently in need of other groups willing to conduct food drives. For more information, call 610-857-4000 or visit http://www.facebook.com/OctoraraAreaFoodCupboard.

In addition to holding the food drive, the field hockey team recently completed its annual clothing drive. "With the help of the community, we collected over 400 bags of clothes that will be distributed throughout the U.S. and abroad to those in need," said Alexander, noting the clothing was donated to Greenthreads. "(The organization) collects mostly clothes and shoes as well as fabric and stuffed animals."

The field hockey team held a clothing drive from Feb. 9 through May 25. "We set (the clothing drive) up after the season is over at our concession stand," explained Ashley Destephano, a member of the Boosters Club. "We set up a day - Wednesdays - where people could drop off clothes until 6 p.m. and one of us would go out and pick it up and put it inside the concession stand. This year it was really filled. We pick a day, and the truck comes and (team members) help load the bags onto the truck."

"It's something the team has done for the past four or five years," she continued. "The community really gets involved. This year was the biggest (quantity) as far as bags, which was exciting. It's (an effort) we want to continue."

"We nearly doubled our collections from last year and are so thankful to the community," added Alexander. "The funds raised from this event will help our girls go to extra training camps in their offseason and provide extra equipment for them as well."

The clothing drive and food collection is part of an effort to promote community service among the team members. "We want them to give back to the community in different ways and work as a team to do that," Destephano said. "For them, it is a team-building and bonding experience and also doing something good for the community."

For more information about the team and the upcoming food drive, visit http://www.facebook.com/octorarafieldhockey.