EXETER – Barber Ford was forced to close their showroom as a directive from Gov. Tom Wolf shutting down all non-essential businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Customer service agent for the dealership, Marty Jordan, came up with a great idea – to host a food bank.
Saturday’s food giveaway was the last drive for the dealership after four successful weeks.
When Jordan proposed the idea to Barber Ford president Matt DePrimo, he was all for it.
“This was Marty’s brainstorm,” DePrimo said. “I told him, yes, go for it. We never thought after a few weeks that it would take a whole day with five people to set up the showroom with food.”
Last Saturday at 10 a.m., it was estimated 500 to 600 people came through the dealership for donated food and approximately 300 dinners prepared by Grico’s Restaurant of Exeter.
“The line ran from the front of the showroom all the way to the back of the building, some 150 to 200 yards,” DePrimo said. “It was far more than we ever estimated.”
Jordan, a 24-year employee of Barber Ford, initially went to social media to see if he could get donations from friends and family for the first week. He was pleasantly surprised to see food and monetary donations flood the dealership for week one.
According to Jordan, he set up the dealership’s seasonally enclosed breezeway as a drop off and pick up for the food because of the convenience for the donors and recipients for the first week.
The breezeway was only good for the first two weeks; by week three, the showroom was cleared of vehicles while donations poured in from several area food distributorships.
One of the area’s largest food distributors, Weinberg Northeast Regional Food Bank, caught wind of the food drive and offered to help.
A girl on Facebook, that I never met before, reached out to me who works at a food bank telling me they wanted to deliver a few pallets of food on Friday,” Jordan said. “I didn’t expect such a large donation.”
Jordan said other businesses donated time and services to the drive.
“We had a lot of volunteers helping out during the giveaway,” Jordan said. “We probably have 20 people helping out like the Wyoming Area Kiwanis Club, members of the Agolino family, Eric Thomas and his wife from Thomas Landscaping and Royal Bake Shop has donated 100 loaves of break and US Foods dropped off food products.”
Initially Jordan believed the dealership would continue with a food drive as long as needed, but a decision had to be made on when to cease the service. “Marty’s concept was, when this hit (shutdown), everyone was laid off and government stimulus or employment wasn’t offered, but now that both have been kicking in, the need was met,” DePrimo said.
“Realistically there had to be a time to pull back and focus again on getting the dealership back up and running again,” Jordan said. “The sales floor has to be reset and filled with vehicles when we can reopen the showroom.”
Both Jordan and DePrimo are hoping and anticipating on May 1 they can reopen the showroom for business.
“We need to get our people back to work,” DePrimo said, admitting the sales force has been out of work since the shutdown and the service center staff at 50%.
“I cannot believe the community, I really can’t, its’ just tremendous,” Jordan said. “Day after day, all day long people dropping off donations and I never ask one person for anything or help, people came to me. It’s been great.”
