When I was a kid, I spent half of my time on a family farm.
Nearly every morning, I would walk out to the chicken coop with my bucket in tow. I’d carefully reach into the straw and pull out the brown eggs the hens laid the day before.
On a farm with chickens, fresh eggs are abundant.
At Easter, we’d have dozens of hard-boiled eggs to dye and decorate. If we wanted to bake a cake, we had the eggs to make the batter. If we wanted scrambled eggs for breakfast, sure, no problem.
In fact, it wasn’t until I was a city-dwelling adult that I realized just how many savory dishes and desserts require fresh eggs. By that point, I no longer had access to the “free” eggs from the coop.
These days, if I want eggs in my fridge, I have to buy them at the store. I seldom remember to put them on the grocery list, so on many a night, I find myself knocking on a neighbor’s door, hoping to borrow an egg so I can finish supper.
Fortunately for clients of the St. Louis Area Foodbank, they won’t need to buy or borrow eggs for quite awhile.
Today, Rose Acre Farms of St. Louis donated 34,500 eggs to the St. Louis Area Foodbank. For families in need, eggs are a sought-after commodity.
Not only are they a required ingredient for many meals, but eggs on their own are a source of high-quality protein and other vital nutrients.
According to the USDA, one large egg delivers six grams of protein and 13 essential nutrients such as choline, folate, iron and zinc. Additionally, the USDA concluded in 2011 that the average amount of cholesterol was 14 percent lower and vitamin D content was 64 percent higher than previously thought.
In the bi-state region, one in eight adults struggles with food insecurity. For children, the statistics are even more daunting – one in four children in the Foodbank’s 26-county service territory deal with hunger on a regular basis.
“Rose Acre is a fifth-generation family business, and we take pride in giving back to our local community,” stated Bob Niewedde, inventory control director of Rose Acre Farms.
For six years, the United Egg Producers have been organizing a nationwide effort to give food insecure families a helping hand.
U. S. egg farmers are donating nearly nine million fresh eggs this year, bringing the total number of fresh eggs donated by egg farmers since 2008 to 69 million.
Consumers can participate in the nationwide effort by going towww.facebook.com/UEPCertified and pledging to buy UEP-certified eggs. For every pledge received, United Egg Producers will donate one carton of eggs to a local food assistance organization.
