Hickman’s Egg Ranch giving 2.1M eggs to Arizona food banks as part of price-fixing settlement

Three Arizona food banks will receive more than 2.1 million eggs from Hickman’s Egg Ranch through a food donation program secured as part of a multistate settlement with major egg producers accused of illegally fixing prices.

The largest share of the eggs will go to St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix, which will receive 1,318,860 eggs throughout September. United Food Bank in Mesa is getting the second-largest batch of this latest delivery with 489,960 eggs.

The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona is getting 361,080 eggs in September. Its CEO, Natalie Jayroe, thanked the Arizona Attorney General’s Office for directing this food to serve communities across the state.

“For families across southern Arizona, eggs are a nutritious, versatile staple, and this delivery will make an immediate difference for neighbors working to put healthy food on the table,” Jayroe said in a Tuesday news release from the Attorney General’s Office. “These eggs will provide meaningful support to southern Arizona families and the food pantries and partner agencies that serve them.”

These groups are three of the four regional food banks in the Arizona Food Bank Network. They distribute large donations to hundreds of smaller food pantries and partner organizations statewide. The network’s fourth regional food bank, Yuma Community Food Bank, received 180,000 eggs from Cal-Maine Foods last month.

Why are Arizona food banks getting hundreds of thousands of free eggs?

The delivery stems from a joint investigation that found Cal-Maine Foods, Versova/Centrum and Hickman’s Egg Ranch worked together to drive up egg prices.

Investigators determined that, between June 2022 and March 2025, the companies secretly coordinated their bidding to influence published benchmark egg prices.

Under a settlement announced in June, the companies agreed to donate more than 53 million eggs to food banks and nonprofits across the 17 states involved in the lawsuit. They also agreed to pay the states a combined $3.3 million.

The egg producers will also remain under state oversight and implement measures to prevent similar conduct.

Attorney General Kris Mayes said the egg deliveries will provide real relief for families across the state.

“These egg deliveries are a direct result of our office holding price-fixers accountable,” Mayes said. “No Arizonan should have to choose between buying groceries and paying their bills because corporations decided to break the law for their own profit.”

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