LIBERTY, N.C. — The Toyota battery manufacturing plant is on track to start production at the beginning of 2025 and the company continues to make strides in becoming part of the community.

Curt Wagner is teaching students how to create name tags. It’s part of a STEM project that he’s working on with students from Liberty Elementary School, helping build on the lessons they learn in the classroom.

“They see us coming here and love on their children trying to help out and, you know, volunteering our time. I think it's a good thing and it makes Toyota look very well to the community and makes them, you know, greet them with open arms instead of kind of being a little bit, you know, afraid of them trying to take over their area,” Wagner said.

Wagner is a new hire with the Toyota plant in Liberty. He’s one of more than 20 new hires teaching students STEM projects as a part of their community outreach, which happens at the end of their 10-week onboarding.

“To me, it's really interesting how they pour into the community. You know, I guess this is the way they, Toyota, do things and how they train us to be a family,” Wagner said.

Wagner grew up in the area and says some are concerned about the influx of new people to the area.

“I’ve lived in the area since I was 5. So now I'm working here. I'm part of the original people that live here to start with, you know? So I think it's very important that they see that we're not a bunch of bad people coming in here and trying to take over their community.”

The community efforts are Toyota’s way of being able to meet their neighbors and show it's here to help.

“Be part of the community, be a family, not, you know, the noisy neighbor, but somebody is going to try to do the best by the community and it might make the place a better place to live,” Wagner said.

Toyota says it plans to host more community events in the future. The company is still hiring daily workers.