Salvation Army, Lexus-Toyota Colorado Springs host food drive

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The Salvation Army and Lexus-Toyota in Colorado Springs are partnering up to fight food insecurities the week of Spring Break, giving food to families who typically rely on school meals to feed their children. It's part of the Toyota Lexus Minority-Owned Dealership Nationwide Campaign.

The drive-thru food drive is expected to provide up to one week of meals to 200 families in Colorado Springs.

Food insecurity plagues many different parts of the state, even here in the Pikes Peak region. According to Feeding America, more than 560,000 people in Colorado are food insecure. More than 47,000 of those individuals are children.

The Colorado Springs dealership says they hope to do all they can to lower those numbers.

"I’ve always had a need to feed other people," says Tom Smith, a senior salesperson at Lexus-Toyota. "There’s a lot of gracious families that’ll line up today that are not gonna have a lot of food, you know when their children are off from Spring Break."

This isn't the first time the dealership and Salvation Army have partnered up to feed families.

At the start of the pandemic, the two held their first food drive together. Smith says the line of people waiting to get a box of food stretched down Motor City, to South 8th Street next to Walmart.

"It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of ‘we’re in business to make a profit and we sell cars,’" says general sales manager Kimberley Zacharias. "But to give back to our community and help those people in need is a big deal to me.”

The food drive begins Monday at 1 p.m. and ends at 3 p.m.

Any family in need of food is welcome. It is a first-come, first-serve drive-thru event.