Farm ‘hatches’ plan to feed community by donating eggs

ROY, Wash. — Rhode Island Red chickens roam pastures at Wilcox Family Farms in Roy laying thousands and thousands of fresh eggs every single day.

"They don’t take breaks. They lay holidays and weekends and the whole thing,” said the company’s president, Brent Wilcox.

At Wilcox Family Farms, farming runs in their blood. They’ve been raising chickens for 100 years.

Wilcox is a fourth-generation farmer and company CEO.

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"Keeps us all busy here,” he said.

Typically eggs get washed, sorted and sent to grocery stores, schools, restaurants and more all over the Pacific Northwest.

However, COVID-19′s brought challenges.

They’re struggling to keep stores stocked, but, at the same time, their restaurant sales suddenly stopped. They had tons of liquid eggs with nowhere for them to go.

"When we talked about possibly having to dump these eggs somewhere, that just breaks your heart because you see what these chickens are doing to produce these eggs and how much cost and money and love and care goes into it and, just knowing you’re going to have to dump this product, almost makes you physically sick,” said Wilcox.

Wilcox decided to use the eggs to do some good.

"The community has been supporting us all these years buying our eggs. It feels good to be able to give back to them,” he said.

Wilcox Farms is donating 600,000 pounds of liquid eggs, which adds up to more than 7 million eggs.

Each egg gets washed, cracked, pasteurized, poured and packaged.

They’re taking truckloads to food banks and shelters, like Northwest Harvest and the Tacoma Rescue Mission.

In the midst of the pandemic, Wilcox feels good knowing his chickens are nourishing those in need.

"It really isn’t a question about money, it really is a question about doing the right thing,” he said.

The donated eggs should be in people’s hands this week.

Wilcox said people can count on them to donate eggs during the entire coronavirus pandemic.

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