OXFORD – Beginning this evening and spilling over into Friday night, a group of local high school students have prepared to donate their time and camaraderie for two area food pantries by way of an organized food drive as a community service exercise.

Under the direction of Oxford Academy's Pat Ford, the Oxford chapter is well versed in participating in community service efforts and 2015's group echoes values handed down from previous years. In keeping with traditions, the organization will again sponsored a series of food drives with a clever twist that elicits participation from students, school athletes and members of the community alike.

Consisting of 16 juniors and seniors, participation in the program shows a marked increase over last years nine member group.

On Thursday Jan. 29 and Friday Jan. 30 as JV and varsity girls and boys basketball teams are busy doing their job up and down the court, Honor Society members will be collecting non-perishable food items in lieu of admission into the games in an effort to fill shelves of the McDonough and Oxford food pantries.

Spectators can opt to pay with non-perishable food items at a rate of one item per student or two items per adult or alternatively $1 per student, $2 per adult – all of which will be donated to the pantries.