On March 21, New Yorkers lined up in droves across three different city sites for a chance to receive a dozen free eggs. With the steady rise of inflation, egg prices hit a record high under the Trump administration. People did their best to bundle up against the cold to get their hands on one of 100 cartons of free eggs, which were gone in less than 10 minutes. The giveaway was hosted by FarmerJawn in Harlem, Brooklyn, and Queens.
Jackeline Tejava told
the Associated Press, “I heard from the news that they will be giving around, like, 1,500 eggs, or something like that. OK? And I just came because I needed some eggs, and then I’m waiting here in the line, and I don’t see anything.” Tejava was in a line that stretched around the block. She added, “They say that the eggs are gone, but there haven’t been even more than 20 people, so I don’t know what happened.”A bird flu outbreak has forced poultry farmers across the United States to slaughter over 168 million birds, causing the price and scarcity of eggs to rise in big cities like New York. It’s made organizations like FarmerJawn even more important.
FarmerJawn, a Black-owned 128-acre farm in Pennsylvania, backed the egg giveaway. Its mission is to provide affordable organic food to underserved communities. This isn’t the first time they handed out free cartons in New York. To bring the giveaway to life, it partnered with a local butchery and a New York farm upstate to assist in the day’s events.
FarnerJawn founder Christa Barfield said, “We’re doing this egg giveaway because, as food producers, we believe it’s our responsibility to support the communities that support us.”
“Food is medicine, and everyone — especially the often-forgotten middle class — deserves access to it,” she continued.
Outside of FarmerJawn, other organizations have followed their lead and held egg giveaways in New York and other big cities, like Las Vegas and
Chicago. The Department of Agriculture reported that egg prices are expected to rise 41% this year over last year’s average of $3.17 per dozen. Currently, a carton of eggs in New York can cost two or three times that amount, depending on the store’s location.RELATED CONTENT: Americans Are Flocking To Their Neighborhood Chicken Coops To Evade Rising Cost Of Eggs