Over 350 cars lined up, some hours early, for a drive-through holiday dinner giveaway at the Elgin Sports Complex Tuesday. “Uniting for the Holidays,” a United Way program sponsored locally by Seigle’s Cabinet Center and the Seigle Family Foundation, provided frozen turkeys and side dishes for 500 families in need during the giveaway, in addition to tote bags with masks and hand sanitizers, backpacks for kids, diapers, children’s books and more.

The United Way of Metropolitan Chicago is getting its biggest gift ever—$25 million, from MacKenzie Scott, a novelist and the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Five hundred Elgin-area families will receive dinner for the holidays thanks to the United Way. “Uniting for the Holidays” is billed as a “festive drive-through event” where dinners and other necessities are being distributed to people in need on a first-come, first-served basis.

United Way of Metro Chicago announced this week Scott has donated $25 million, the single largest donation in the organization’s history. “To have this $25 million investment come completely unexpectedly from MacKenzie Scott was just remarkable and overwhelming in what it means for our community,” said Sean Garrett, United Way’s local president & CEO.

Christmas music played in the background as cars drove through with kids extending their arms, laughing, to be handed Thanksgiving dinners, backpacks, candy and toys Thursday night in Palatine. The line to get into the parking lot of the nonprofit agency Partners for Our Communities was at least 35 cars deep, as local families drove by to pick up donations as part of the “Uniting for the Holidays” program from United Way of Metro Chicago.