Vital Farms quadruples egg donations to Ozarks Food Harvest

As construction continues at its Springfield plant, Austin, Texas-based Vital Farms has quadrupled its original egg donation goal benefiting Ozarks Food Harvest.

Since October, the company has donated 4 million eggs to the Springfield nonprofit, according to a news release. The company announced late last year plans to donate more than 1 million eggs to Ozarks Food Harvest by the end of 2016.

“It’s been very beneficial,” said Paul Reffitt, pantry manager at Christian Action Ministries in Branson, an Ozarks Food Harvest member agency, in the release. “The fact that Vital Farms has donated them and we can get them from Ozarks Food Harvest at no cost has definitely filled the gaps and allowed us to give more eggs out.”

The donations are delivered through Ozarks Food Harvest to a network of 270 pantries, feeding sites and programs across 28 southwest Missouri counties.

Vital Farms, which provides eggs from pasture-raised hens, broke ground on its 82,140-square-foot Springfield plant in September. The development at Partnership Industrial Center West, a plot of land at the corner of North Alliance Avenue and West Production Street, was projected to be completed in a year, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.

Officials could not be reached for an update of those plans.