Steve Byrd, Regional Manager and Shawn Long, Account Executive of Versacor Managed Pest Solutions help unload and package food to be distributed to Fort Worth, Texas-area hospitality workers furloughed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. PHOTO: BEN EICHER

Based in Southlake, Texas — and with offices throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas — Versacor Enterprises recently sponsored a food drive, hosted by the Hotel Association of Tarrant County, to help hospitality workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 19 pallets of food was contributed by Versacor’s collection efforts, including items such as coffee, olive oil, chips, salsa, bread, tostadas, pita chips, rice crisps and oatmeal.

The items were given away on July 17 at the Sheraton in Fort Worth, Texas.

Steve Byrd, a regional manager at Versacor, spearheaded the company’s efforts to collect food from Versacor employees and customers.

“The impact COVID-19 has had on the hospitality industry over the last four months has been devastating with so many employees being furloughed leaving their families struggling,” Byrd said. “Versacor has been a significant partner to the hospitality industry over the years, so when we had the opportunity to collaborate with the Hotel Association of Tarrant County and the Sheraton Fort Worth to sponsor a food drive for furloughed employees, we jumped right in.”

Food is loaded into Versacor’s signature green bags to be distributed. PHOTO: BEN EICHER

Versacor participated in the food drive by asking employees to contribute what they could as well as asking some of its food warehousing and distributor customers for donations.

“We created a contest with our employees to obtain the most food items for the donation with the winning team receiving a Top Golf outing,” Byrd said. “In addition to food donations from our company associates, we received generous donations from several of our food industry clients, collecting more than 19 pallets of food items overall.”

Local news stations, including Fox4 News and NBC 5 DFW News, covered the the food drive event.