O'Connor football players pack meals to be sent to the Philippines. (Cody Whitehouse/AzPreps365)

After scoring 187 points in the first five weeks of the season, the Sandra Day O’Connor football team scored something greater during the team’s bye week.

The O’Connor football team spent their bye week volunteering at Feed My Starving Children, a Christian non-profit organization that packs meals to send to over 70 countries to help fight malnutrition. The meals they packed were for those fighting hunger in the Philippines.

For head coach Steve Casey, it was a chance to put the team’s values into action.

“We talk about serving all the time, humility and being selfless,” Casey said. “This is an opportunity for us as a program to go out and show our players the stuff we’re always telling them about.”

Around 120 O’Connor football players were joined by the school’s spiritline in a joint event between the two teams. The competitive nature of both teams was able to turn the project into more of a competition between the athletes to see who could pack the most.

The atmosphere proved to be essential to the event’s success, as the two teams were able to exceed the goal of 223 boxes heading in.

“We love it when we have teams come and that are super competitive as well as willing to do their best,” assistant site manager Trish Blackwell said. “We have a lot more competition, we get a high team morale and high energy.”

The goal of 223 boxes was exceeded by both teams as they finished the event at 265 boxes holding 57,240 meals, enough food to feed 157 children for a year.

While the event’s numbers went above and beyond, the opportunity also provided a chance for teammates to strengthen their bond midway through the football season.

“It’s big for us because we get to bond,” senior Dominic Alvarado said. “That makes us better on the field because we are able to trust each other and then also to help our community.”

The team was also joined by parents of players and those on the spirit line as they were able to assist the players and cheerleaders in reaching the 265 boxes.

“I think it’s good for kids to do this to get an appreciation what they have and what other people don’t have,” parent Lisa Moore said. “To learn to help other people and not to think just about yourself. Think about others and how you can help in the community.”

The football team partakes in three community events a year, this being the first this year, and chose FMSC after the spirit line came to Casey about the project.

“About a month ago our cheer team’s coach Michelle Murphy asked me if we wanted to do something together,” Casey said. “We’ll have two more opportunities for kids to go out and do stuff. We go to food lines, during Christmas time we hand out toys. During Thanksgiving, we pack meals and take them to a church. Last year, we fed 75 families enough to eat for two days.”
 

Blackwell, who has worked at FMSC for 10 months, has seen a variety of companies and teams participate in the charity, from major corporations such as Intel to young children.

The only limit FMSC has is you must be over five years old to participate.

“We have everything come from Intel to small businesses to Wells Fargo,” Blackwell said. “We have kindergarteners that come out, we have special needs, all sorts of groups come out.”

O’Connor will be back on the gridiron on September 28 as they will face Pinnacle in a conference game at Pinnacle High School in Phoenix.