The Heart Care Group, located at 1202 South Cedar Crest Bvd. in Allentown, recently held one of its biggest canned food drives to date.

From October to Dec. 12, 2014, a total of 4,502 cans of food were collected to be given to Second Harvest Food Bank, which is located at 2045 Harvest Way in Allentown.

According to Second Harvest, "the food bank distributes food to the hungry through its more than 200 member agencies in Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe, Northampton, Pike and Wayne counties."

Employees of The Heart Care Group were divided into 11 teams, Barb Molseed, of Salisbury Township, told The Press. Molseed has been at The Heart Care Group for seven years, working in purchasing, marketing and advertising. She also was the one to organize and run the canned food drive.

Another employee, Ronnie Caciole, of Coplay, said she immediately loved the idea of conducting a canned food drive. "It gave us the opportunity to give back. I told pretty much anyone who would listen that I was collecting cans," Caciole said.

Molseed said conducting this fundraiser made the departments at The Heart Care Group more fun and upbeat. "It was uplifting," she said.

Caciole also had the same sentiments toward the departments. "I think it was really uplifting because it shows they think about others besides themselves [company and its employees]," Caciole said. "The Heart Care Group is always looking for ways to help others and I think that's really awesome."

The first place prize for this canned food drive was a candle-lit, catered luncheon with the board of directors and was awarded to the front desk team, whom Caciole was a part of. Instead they chose to donate the prize's monetary value of $210 to Victory House. Victory House is located at 314 Fillmore St. in Bethlehem and has helped over 3,500 homeless men since 1985.

"We decided we wanted to give back to the community. That's where [the idea] came from. We also wanted to make it a team event and get everybody involved," Molseed said.

"Giving back really seemed to mean a lot to many people."