Thousands of cartons of free range eggs are being donated to food banks by a farm which has seen a drop in demand due to the pandemic.
Egg producer St Ewe launched the Shell Out To Help Out campaign to support local communities as the Covid crisis has caused 'business to drop'.
For each tray sold at their current reduced price, the farm is donating 1 carton of eggs to food banks across Cornwall.
St Ewe says it is trying to help ease the 'growing food poverty issue exacerbated by the relentless Covid-19 pandemic'.
"Just like many small businesses, we have seen over half of our business drop off due to the pandemic, with half of our customers being in the hospitality and food service sector.
"Unfortunately, you can’t furlough a hen and our girls keep producing nutritious eggs, with no home to go to," said Bex Tonks, CEO of St Ewe.
St Ewe, along with other egg producers in the UK, face the reality of having to throw away perfectly edible eggs due to a drop in demand as lockdown restrictions bite.
It is here that the idea for the Shell Out To Help Out campaign came about, to reduce food waste and supply eggs to those that need it most.
“As we are all getting used to the lock down way of life, it feels that the poultry farming industry has been hit particularly hard by this most recent one," Ms Tonks said.
"Timing is everything, and the lead up to Christmas which had its usual buzz was followed by the plummet that falls in between Christmas and New Year; this year it has been faster and harder than ever.
"Combined with the third lockdown, uncertainty of Brexit and an increase in poultry feed prices, this cruel timing has left many poultry businesses in a dismal position."
St Ewe has partnered with local charities to help spread the word, including CHAOS (Feed Cornwall), FareShare SW, The Hive and Newquay Orchard.
The farm has also recruited chefs such as Guy Owen of the St Enodoc Hotel in Rock and the Rick Stein Group to volunteer to sell eggs in their local communities.
CHAOS has been given some 20,000 of the eggs to distribute via its community larders and the team are keen to encourage key workers to take advantage of the scheme.
“We are incredibly grateful to St Ewe eggs for their generosity which will help hundreds of people across Cornwall,” said CHAOS Managing Director, Babs Rounsevell.
“We know just how hard critical workers are working to protect all of us at this time and we would particularly like to invite them to come and collect some of these eggs.”
