Statement from Vital Farms on Recent Winter Storms
We are thinking of our stakeholders, many of whom are in parts of the country that have been affected by extreme weather this week. We are in touch with our stakeholders and thankful to report that our operations were not significantly impacted by the storms.
We were able to keep our production facility in Springfield, MO operational and are incredibly grateful to our hard working and passionate crew who dedicated their week to keeping grocery shelves stocked for our retail customers.
Our Grower Support team has been in close contact with our farm partners throughout the week. While a few have had to manage frozen water lines, our farm partners and their egg supply were not significantly impacted. Our Grower Support team is also providing guidance to our farmers on how to care for their hens through frigid temperatures. There were times when the hens were unable to roam outside on pasture as they normally would when, for example, the windchill fell below 15 degrees. During these times, the hens were safe and warm inside a barn. Our farm partners demonstrated their resilience this week as they remained dedicated to caring for their animals, and the U.S. food system, even in challenging circumstances.
While the power and water outages were devastating for so many, it has been heartening to see the community come together to support and uplift each other in inspiring ways. We are doing what we can as well, supporting our Austin-based crewmembers who lost power and/or water as well as working closely with our foodservice and food bank partners to provide hundreds of meals to members of the community. We have partnered with Chi’lantro, one of our Austin-based foodservice partners, to provide 400 warm meals today and over the weekend. We also donated $10,000 to the Central Texas Food Bank (CTFB), which will provide 300 emergency food boxes as part of a distribution event CTFB has planned for the weekend. We remain in touch with all our foodservice and community stakeholders and will continue to support those in need however possible. We will share more on these efforts on our social channels in the coming days.