SHERMAN, TX-Over the summer months when kids are out of school, local food pantries run out of food quickly. So to fill the need and some empty stomachs, Texoma Council of Governments employees got together Tuesday morning and gave out over 10,000 pounds of food they'd collected.

TCOG donated it to several agencies in Grayson County Tuesday and will hit other counties later this week. They usually hold their food drive around the holidays, but after they heard about the summer shortage, they decided to take action.

The Salvation Army's Major Don Wildish said they help up to 400 families a month, even more in the summer.That's why they're running on empty.

"The need is great. It really is big, we're not the only place in Grayson county that provides food so I know there's a tremendous need in this county," he said.

So Judy Fullylove, along with other employees at the Texoma Council of Governments, decided to help.

"Your story helped inspire employees to give more and be more thoughtful about what they were doing and they felt like they have more of a mission and a purpose to fulfill the need," she said.

They collected 10,000 pounds of food and $1,100 in cash during a three-week food drive.

"We've done food drives before but usually in the wintertime. We did know though that in winter, around the holidays, that a lot of people give to the food pantries and during the summer, food pantries run out of food," she said.

Tuesday morning, they made two much needed deliveries to the Grand Central Station Dining Car soup kitchen and the Sherman Salvation Army. Major Wildish said TCOG brought them 25 cases of food.

"I just want to say thank you to TCOG. They were just so very kind to collect food and give it to the Salvation Army and it wasn't just only food, it's also money in which we're gonna use the $400 they gave the Salvation Army for food," he said.

"Everybody feels great about it and we're happy that we can help out our community," said Fullylove.

Wildish said the Salvation Army is incredibly grateful and hopes the help keeps coming, because need knows no season.

"It takes a lot of help to help a lot of families and so we're still extending the request out to the community to please help the Salvation Army so we can help so many families," he said.

TCOG plans to deliver 500-pounds of food to Cooke county food pantries Wednesday. They will also make food deliveries to Fannin county next week.

Donations still needed:

Salvation Army
5700 Texoma Parkway
Sherman, TX
(903) 868-9602

Texoma Council of Governments
1117 Gallagher Drive
Sherman, TX 75090
(903) 893-2161