Those fresh eggs- almost half a million of them- from area poultry farms will help people in difficult times.
Egg farmers from Illinois and surrounding states got together for the third straight year to bring eggs at Easter time to those who need them most. The Chicago area received 464,000 eggs. Other cities got sizeable donations as well.
"The egg producers of America are all donating eggs across the country today. Some twelve million eggs are being donated across America today," said Bob Van, Herbrouch's Poultry Ranch.
Eggs are rich in nutrients, according to the food bank, and are important ammunition in the war against hunger. And right now the war is getting tougher and tougher to win.
"We just had the results of a study released that we're serving one in eight people in Cook County who are getting food from the metro pantries and soup kitchens or the food depository so there are a lot of hungry people on Cook County," said Leah Ray, Greater Chicago Food Depository.
These almost half a million eggs will spend the night at the food depository. Tomorrow they will be sent out to feed the hungry. These aren't just cheaper by the dozen, they're free by the millions.
Let me scramble a couple of figures for you. This amounts to about 41,000 dozen eggs. And a 163,000 egg omelets. Now here's a question for you: How many chickens does it take to lay a half million eggs?
"Roughly, give or take, it takes about 500,000 chickens. A chicken lays an egg a day," said Ben Thompson, Pearl Valley Eggs.
But apparently you have to be an egghead to figure that one out.
