Dealerships step up to fill the food gap

When the schools closed indefinitely in Alabama, Sand Mountain Toyota owner Mark Brickey wanted to help feed affected students and their families in his community.

So Sand Mountain Toyota staff and volunteers have been grilling food and putting together lunches every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the dealership in Albertville since March 18. They have provided nearly 8,000 meals of hamburgers and hot dogs to students who depended on getting their lunches at school before the coronavirus outbreak.

Brickey has received handwritten notes from students and parents thanking him for the meals. He said one mother told him that, thanks to the dealership's initiative, her children don't go to bed hungry.

"We have always said we are going to give 10 percent to the community, and we have done that," Brickey told Automotive News.

Churches pitched in time, money and peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches to the dealership's effort, providing an additional 6,873 lunches.

Community members donated money to the dealership to help with the cost of purchasing and preparing the lunches.

Brickey is among a flood of dealers stepping forward across the country to help feed community members and front-line workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

Gerald Jones Automotive Group in Augusta, Ga., bought and delivered 85 boxed lunches and 150 N-95 masks to a hospital on April 15. Gerald Jones employees also have rallied outside hospitals with signs of encouragement for the staff and patients inside.

Andy Jones, owner of the dealership group, said nurses at Augusta University Medical Center sent him pictures of them eating the lunches and thank you texts. Jones ordered the meals from a restaurant hurt by the crisis, supporting another local business in the effort.

Supporting front-line employees is especially meaningful for Jones, who is the father of two such workers in the COVID-19 crisis. His daughter is a nurse, and his son is a firefighter.

In Exeter, Pa., Barber Ford transformed its showroom into a food pantry for four weeks so people in need could shop for groceries for free.

The food drive started in the service department, but so many people started donating that it needed to be moved to the more spacious showroom.

That space wasn't in use anyway as dealerships in Pennsylvania were forced to halt vehicle sales and close showroom operations to comply with a March 19 state order.

The food pantry "started as a little thing, and it grew," Barber Ford co-owner Matt DePrimo said.

On Easter weekend, the showroom was filled with people picking up food for their families. A line outside the store stretched for 400 yards. The dealership provided 80 turkey dinners, while a restaurant donated another 400 individual dinners. Donated Easter baskets were available for 75 children.

"It was local businesses, local individuals; everyone jumped in," DePrimo said. "It was an overwhelming success."

The dealership operated the food pantry for four weeks, and more than 2,000 people received food. It ended on April 18, two days before Gov. Tom Wolf loosened the state's restrictions on dealerships to allow for online sales.

On the other side of the U.S., one of the largest dealership groups in the country, Larry H. Miller Dealerships and Larry H. Miller Group of Cos., is leading a one-week food drive in Utah. The company's "Driven to Assist" campaign kicked off April 30 and runs through Wednesday, May 6.

Larry H. Miller has set up 40 donation locations, including 22 of its Utah dealerships. To urge people to donate, the dealerships are offering coupons to get $10 off a lube, oil or filter service.

Sand Mountain Toyota was set to wrap up its lunch donations to students on May 1. The program's end was rooted in good news: A federal program is set to provide monetary assistance to families of Alabama students who no longer receive free or reduced-price lunches at their schools.

To have bridged that gap for those students was an honor, Brickey said.

"It's just kind of in our DNA to help people here at the dealership," he said.