Arizona farm makes egg-cellent donation to Yuma food bank

  The Yuma Community Food Bank hopes to make the Easter holiday a little brighter for area children after receiving 27,000 eggs from an Arizona farm.

  Hickman's Family Farms donated the 2,250 dozen eggs to the food bank Wednesday. The gift is part of the farm's almost 700,000-egg donation to food banks across four states.

  Shelly Barbato, events manager with Yuma Community Food Bank, said the donated eggs will go toward families and local nonprofit organizations for Easter.

  Besides being food for families going through tough times, Barbato said, representatives with the food bank want the children to be able to participate in activities such as dyeing Easter eggs and egg hunts.

  "It's really important to keep some sort of normalcy in their lives," Barbato said. "The kids really are the victims in every situation when it comes down to things like hunger."

  Clint Hickman, vice president of sales for Hickman's Family Farms, said they'd like to give everyone the opportunity to have a dozen eggs in their refrigerator for Easter.

  "We feel it's important because Easter egg coloring ... creates family time and togetherness. And over the last couple of years, the easy thing for parents to do is throw candy and gifts at Easter time.

  "And we feel Easter is a time to spend with your family, not a time to load your kids up with chocolate."

  Families interested in receiving eggs can visit the food bank during its normal food distribution hours Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., and Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

  The eggs are available two ways: one dozen for each emergency food box; and two dozen each for the harvest food box program, in which a family may buy a box of food valued at $40-$45 for $20.

  The eggs are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

  The donation also will give local nonprofit organizations an opportunity to help children participate in Easter activities.

  "It allows us to share our donations with them so they can stretch their dollar further and make their parties that much better for the kids that are involved," Barbato said.

   Nationally, the United Egg Producers, which Hickman's Family Farms is a part of, will donate 12 million eggs to food banks in the next two weeks.

  Hickman said the farm sells a lot of eggs to Yuma, and the donation to the food bank is their gift to the community.

  "Thanks for supporting our product and our family business," Hickman said.

  Local nonprofits interested in receiving eggs for Easter activities may call Barbato at 343-1243, Ext. 18.

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Stephanie A. Wilken can be reached at swilken@yumasun.com or 539-6857.