YORK, Pa. (WHTM) – The York Catholic Girls’ Soccer team volunteered with York Giving Helping Hands (YGHH) on Sept. 2 to pass out food, water and snacks to those in need.

“At York Catholic, we are very big on service,” Maggie Mckeage, a sophomore on the York Catholic Girls’ Soccer team, said. “I thought as a team it was really great to do that all together and especially seeing how fortunate we are and being able to appreciate that more.”

The student athletes set up tables and handed out food and water to those in attendance.

“On Friday, we had [a] team dinner and every player on the team made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I think we each made five, and we brought them and then on Saturday morning we all went to help with the York Giving and we handed out sandwiches and snacks,” Meredith Smith, a senior on the team said.

This was the first time the team had partnered with YGHH. The opportunity to serve was arranged at the beginning of the season thanks to some of the players parents who had connections to the organization.

“It was definitely an eye-opening experience,” Katie Bullen, a junior on the team said. “[It was] nothing like I’ve ever done before and I’m definitely really glad I had the opportunity to do it and it’s definitely something I would want to keep doing.”

The York Catholic soccer program has set a goal to be more community oriented. This was the first activity the team was able to participate in with the initiative.

“I thought it was really good to get that vision of what that purpose is and what we can do to help others and how much it means to them,” Bullen said.

The team is scheduled to serve with YGHH again in October. This time they will be bringing hot meals that those in attendance can eat on site and cold meals they can take with them.

“Being able to do the service altogether, we were more grateful for each other and what we have and the kind of relationships we have at school here,” Bullen said.

For their next community project, the York Catholic Girls’ Soccer team will be collecting donations for veterans.