When egg prices shot up dramatically earlier this year, the Urban Farming Institute (UFI) in Mattapan decided to take a crack at providing its neighbors with a more affordable option for the popular product. For 14 weeks, the group sold discounted eggs for just $3 per dozen.
“It was the wintertime, we didn’t have a lot of produce to offer, and it was something we could do at that time of year,” said Matthew Ellison, the assistant farm manager at UFI’s Folwer-Clark-Epstein farm on Norfolk Street.
“It was a need we could actually meet at the time,” he added. “Everyone was talking about how hard it was to source them, and there was a shortage.”
UFI teamed up with local businesses to purchase eggs from a supplier in Rhode Island.
“Each business contributed a certain amount of money to allow us to buy eggs at a slightly higher price and discount them,” Ellison said. “At first, we had to pay $7, but then we ended up getting them around $5.50, and we would sell them for $3,” Ellison explained.
At the time, the statewide average price was around $6, meaning those who visited the farm were getting a dozen eggs for half the price.
“The first week we had, I think, 60 dozen, and it didn’t really sell out,” said Ellison. By the end, it was like 300 dozen a week; we couldn’t even get to 1 o’clock in the afternoon. We did 14 weeks or so, around three months’ worth.”
If you do the math, that means UFI distributed around 4,000 eggs to community members who scrambled to the farm.
While the program is no longer running, the farm continues to look out for its neighbors with its Farm Stand Fridays, which is now up and running through the fall.
To learn more visit urbanfarminginstitute.org.
–REPORTER STAFF
