Turkey Drive: Santa Maria car dealerships now collecting non-perishable food donations
Dave Alley
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) – Three well-known Santa Maria car dealerships are once again providing support to the annual News Channel 12 Turkey Drive.
Honda of Santa Maria, Toyota of Santa Maria, and Kia of Santa Maria just started a nearly three-week long food drive that will directly benefit clients at Good Samaritan Shelter in Northern Santa Barbara County.
“We’ve been this for the last several years and it’s great,” said Shane Conway, Santa Maria Honda General Manager. “We get great turnout. It’s helping people that need it and when we get an opportunity to do that, we want to jump on that.”
To participate, people can simply take canned goods and non-perishable food to any one of the three dealerships during business hours starting today through Wednesday, Nov. 19.
Each of the dealerships will have a designated vehicle parked inside its showroom where the public can leave their donations in the trunk or bed.
“Anything the public can bring will be super helpful,” said Carl Sainz, Santa Maria Toyota Sales Manager. “You can just stop in and say hi. We see a lot of regulars that come in that regularly donate, so we’d like to see some new faces get involved.”
All of the donations will later be delivered directly to Good Samaritan Shelter during the last day of the Turkey Drive when New Channels hosts its main collection site at its Santa Maria station located at 1211 W. McCoy Lane.
“Thanksgiving is certainly a happy time of year,” said Sainz. “For some families, they need a lot of help in order to make that happen, so just being able to provide that platform for the families in Santa Maria is just great.”
The annual News Channel Turkey Drive benefits SLO Food Bank clients in San Luis Obispo County and those with Good Samaritan Shelter in Santa Barbara County.
Donations collected in San Luis Obispo County will directly assist SLO Food Bank Clients, while those collected in Santa Barbara County will directly benefit Good Samaritan clients, as well as other local non-profit organizations.
For more information about the News Channel 12 Turkey Drive, or to donate, click here.
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