St. Mary’s Food Bank gets surprise donation of eggs just before Easter

PHOENIX – A Valley food bank got a surprise donation of eggs on Friday, just in time for Easter.

Hickman Family Farms hopped into action like the Easter Bunny after hearing that St. Mary’s Food Bank didn’t have enough donated eggs on hand to distribute this week.

St. Mary’s said it was able to supply families in need with around 2,000 turkeys and hams on Wednesday, the first time the nonprofit group gave out those items for Easter.

That motivated Clint Hickman, vice president of sales and marketing for Hickman Family Farms.

“We were looking at not being able to make a food bank donation, and then on the radio I heard, like, ‘Oh my gosh, the ham people are coming up?’ You can’t have ham and eggs without eggs,” Hickman told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show on Friday.

How Hickman Family Farms came to donate eggs to Valley food bank

Hickman’s West Valley egg farm completed its grocery store deliveries for the week and was working on shipments for Monday and Tuesday.

“We just decided … let’s jump the line a little bit, let’s run some eggs,” Hickman said.

It wasn’t just “some eggs.” Hickman Family Farms went to work to truck 12 palettes of eggs to St. Mary’s on Friday.

“That translates to more than 10,000 dozen eggs,” said Jerry Brown, a St. Mary’s Food Bank spokesman.

Brown said his nonprofit group serves about 10,000 people at its two Valley distribution centers in Phoenix and Surprise each week.

“So, that means everybody who comes to the food bank over the course of the next week will be enjoying a dozen eggs thanks to Hickman’s,” he said.

Brown said Hickman Family Farms has been a generous donor over the years, but he understood there was an ongoing egg shortage due to avian flu outbreaks.

“For him to give us a call this morning and say, ‘Hey, there’s a truck rolling your way.’ Just incredible,” Brown said.

Hickman said it was a blessing his farm was able to make it happen.

“I just can’t think of missing an Easter donation after all these years,” Hickman said.

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