Fla. dealership group leader expands community mission

When Schumacher Automotive Group in West Palm Beach, Fla., had to furlough employees in March because of the coronavirus pandemic, the group made sure those employees would be taken care of. Since then, the dealership group has taken the entire local community under its wing.

Vice President Amanda Schumacher told Automotive News that the group sponsored a food pantry for furloughed employees in March through the Tree of Life Foundation, her nonprofit fundraising organization.

The pantry quickly expanded to a full-blown resource center serving the general public, and it will remain a fixture of the foundation even after the pandemic, Schumacher said. The center is a warehouse with separate rooms to store necessities such as sanitary napkins, cleaning supplies and more.

Meghan Mayo, resource center coordinator, said people are given what they need with "no questions asked."

The dealership group also has partnered with Tree of Life to host monthly food-distribution drive-through events since May. Other community organizations have joined the effort, such as food-distribution nonprofit Farm Share and Cotton Bottom Diaper Bank, which provides diapers to families at the events.

Food-distribution events have been scheduled into December, with the next one to be held on Friday, Aug.14, Schumacher said. More than 2,000 families have been fed so far.

"I get calls after the food distributions from the families that we serve … saying, 'Thank you so much for what you're doing,' " Mayo said.

Schumacher added that the food they distribute — which includes produce, meats and more — is so fresh that her husband, Chuck Schumacher, president of the dealership group, wanted to bring some home. "My husband asked, 'Hey, can we have those vegetables?' I said, 'No, you can't.' "