Shell Out To Help Out

St Ewe Free Range Eggs Launch Shell Out To Help Out Campaign To Support Local Communities and Food Bank

We are popping up at locations throughout Cornwall selling trays of our delicious, award winning, free-range eggs to local communities.

For each tray sold at their current reduced price, we are donating 1 carton of eggs to Food Banks across Cornwall to try and help ease the growing food poverty issue which is being 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.

We along with countless other packers in the UK face the heart-breaking reality of having to throw away these perfectly edible eggs, right when they are needed most.  It is from here that the idea for the Shell Out To Help Out campaign came about; to reduce food waste and supply tasty and nutritious 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.

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.

Supermarkets are restricting egg sales which seems such an odd thing to do when surplus eggs are going out of date and being thrown away! This all seems criminal when there are so many people in need of food and this is when the idea of Shell Out To Help Out was conceived. Every tray of eggs sold, St Ewe will donate a carton of eggs to Food Banks and local charities.

Eggs are one of the most nutritious foods you can buy as well as being affordable, extremely versatile, simple to cook and easily digestible for all age groups; the perfect food for all! So, let’s get them out there and share this beautiful British product with those that need it most.”  Bex Tonks.

We are hoping as many people as possible get involved in this initiative on a national level enabling everybody, including those in need, to gain access to this incredibly nutritious and versatile food. So far we have recruited top chefs such as Guy Owen of the St Enodoc Hotel in Rock and the Rick Stein group, to volunteer their time to sell eggs in and around their local communities.

We are also delighted to announce that we have partnered with local charities to help spread the word including CHAOS (Feed Cornwall), FareShare SW, The Hive and Newquay Orchard. Following the incredible success of the Feed Cornwall campaign, which saw hundreds of local families provided with food boxes over the Christmas period, the CHAOS Collective are continuing to support people in need in Cornwall through the development of community larders and other new projects. CHAOS has been given some 20,000 of the St Ewe’s free-range 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”.

The locations of the pop ups will be posted on our Facebook page and anybody who is interested in this campaign is encouraged to join the Shell Out To Help Out group to share stories, recipe inspiration and do their bit to help others during these difficult times.

Please share your creations on your social media channels using the hashtags #SO2HO and support your local and British producers #GBFoodrevolution.

So please, SHELL OUT TO HELP OUT and let’s get through this together.