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By Ayanna Eckblad

The Dave Syverson Auto Center parking lot on Thursday evening was bustling with activity as the company held its fourth annual meal donation event.

Beginning in 2020, the event seeks to give back to local families experiencing need this Christmas season by donating meal boxes containing ingredients for a full holiday meal. The program takes place at both the Dave Syverson Auto Center in Albert Lea and the Dave Syverson Truck Center in Rochester.

This year the company is giving 100 meals to people in the Albert Lea area. Sales and leasing consultant Aaron McVicker said it was through a process of trial and error over the years that led staff to decide 100 was the perfect number of meals to donate.

Each meal box contains a ham, a turkey, potatoes, stuffing, green beans, corn, gravy and dinner rolls as well as a case of bottled water.

McVicker said the fact that Dave Syverson makes an effort to give back to the community is one of the reasons he has stayed an employee at the company for eight years. He said he loves seeing how excited everyone gets. Helping families through a tough time, he said, is also rewarding.

“Because a lot of us have been there, just knowing they’re going to get a good holiday meal and they can get their family together and feed everybody,” McVicker said. “When I grew up, I needed places in my local town to help me out so we could have a meal for the holidays. I grew up with no money so being able to be on the other side of that and help other families now and knowing where they’re at is really cool.”

Dave Syverson staff works with school social workers and counselors in the district to select families who would benefit from receiving a donated meal. Marketing director Lynsie Stortroen said the social workers in Albert Lea are amazing, and working with them is one of her favorite parts of the event.

Dave Syverson staff members gathered at the auto center Wednesday night to assemble the meal boxes. This involved building the boxes, which came flat, and filling them with the shelf stable parts of the meal. The hams and turkeys needed to be kept in a refrigerated area and were taken out before giving the boxes to the families.

Getting staff involved, Stortroen said, is a critical part of the event.

“It’s important for the Dave Syverson crew to be involved as well. It’s a way we give back,” she said. “We absolutely love doing it. Everyone looks forward to it every year.”

All the employees who participated donated their time.

Families picked up the meal boxes Thursday evening. It was set up similarly to a drive through, with cars lining up at the auto center and staff bringing the boxes and cases of water out to the cars. One of the staff members dressed up as Santa and handed out candy canes to the children that came through. The school social workers also attended.

“We make it a big event,” McVicker said. “It’s one of our favorite things of the year.”

“It’s priceless,” Stortroen added.