SPOKANE, Wash. — High egg prices are having a huge impact for Americans, especially for groups in Spokane that supply low to no cost meals for kids like the Northeast Youth Center.
For some parents, this is the only guaranteed nutritious meal their child will get that day.
The teachers at Northeast Youth Center say not being able to have eggs not only breaks up the normal routine for a lot of kids, bot sometimes the meals the kids get there are the only square meals they get during the day.
“Our cook has been scrambling to try to find eggs anywhere,” said Brittany Anderson, the lead ECEAP teacher at Northeast Youth Center.
The chefs from the center have been looking for liquid eggs at grocery stores around Spokane, but because of the national shortage, they haven’t been able to find any.
The youth center’s food supplier doesn’t have any either, so the chefs are forced to come up with alternatives.
“We can still have cereal and we have yogurt and granola and bagels and pancakes,” said Sheila Geraghty, the executive director at Northeast Youth Center. “They love pancakes but we need to put some good protein like eggs into their menu.”
Geraghty posted on social media asking for donations of eggs. She says a number of people have already reached out to the youth center.
A donation of 20 pounds of liquid eggs is set to arrive next week.
“They love their breakfast every morning and one of their favorite things is scrambled eggs,” Anderson said. “It’s surprising how many recipes call for eggs.”
The chefs at the center say 20 pounds of liquid eggs is enough to feed the 120 kids there for about four meals. Once those run out, they will be looking for more donations to keep eggs on the menu.
“I know the bird flu is what’s causing this. There will be some more chickens here down the way, maybe not next week or next month, but pretty soon we’ll be back on track as soon as they get the bird flu under containment,” Geraghty said.
The center is also looking for monetary donations through its website.
