Local Chef. Local Hero.
This past year, many Canadians put aside their own challenges to go above and beyond for their friends, families and communities. As members of almost every community, Canadian egg farmers coast-to-coast have seen it first-hand, supporting local initiatives and donating millions of fresh, local, high-quality eggs to food banks and other charities and organizations. Overall, many in the food industry have stepped up this past year and their stories are worth sharing. Worth celebrating.
Chef Lynn Crawford, who is a culinary pioneer, Food Network star, and Canadian household name has a passion for food that starts well before it gets to the table — at the farm. For this and many other reasons, chef Lynn chose to celebrate a farmer whose product inspires her culinary creations and whose charitable efforts inspire her outside the kitchen. Ontario egg farmer Gary West is that someone, someone who has made a difference in thousands of Ontario students’ lives, like most farmers, behind the scenes.
Chef Lynn: Your egg farm has been family-run for years, what does it mean to your family to be part of the food industry and local community?
Gary: The whole food industry is like family. I feel lucky to be able to provide food for my community and I’m so proud that my son wants to take over the farm. Even my twelve-year-old granddaughter helps out by sweeping the barn. And that’s something people don’t understand, that egg farmers are small businesses, often family-run. This is a big reason why we try to support our local communities.
Over the last few years you’ve begun an initiative with Ontario schools, can you tell us a little about that?
My two sisters are teachers, as is my son's wife. We have a close connection to our local schools so we’d heard about kids going to school without breakfast. I remember school was hard on a full stomach, and near impossible on an empty one, so we knew we could really make a difference for these kids. We started by providing ready-to-eat hard-cooked eggs to one school in our community, and got such a positive reaction that over five years we’ve built the program up to support over one hundred and forty local schools. Due to the pandemic, we changed to individual packaging, but as long as there are hungry kids, we’ll keep on feeding them.
What does it mean to be a part of Canada’s food supply chain?
We love what we do and we’re proud to be a part of one of the hardest working industries in the country. But so rarely do we get to see the smiles our eggs put on Canadian faces. That’s something I’ve loved about the program — seeing students enjoying our eggs just makes it all worthwhile.
How important is it to have access to locally-produced food?
Well, for one thing, it helps stretch the food dollar. Some Canadians who are maybe out of work know they can provide their families with a nutritious meal from just one carton of fresh, local high-quality eggs. And thanks to chefs like you, they know how versatile eggs are as an ingredient.
Twenty-five years as a chef, and the versatility of eggs still can surprise me. It’s amazing to see a growing respect for the ingredients, and knowing where they come from.
That’s a really positive thing that’s come out of this. That, and the whole country is thinking like a community, trying to support each other. It’s what we do as Canadians, we care. We also appreciate all the chefs, and everyone in the food industry who work so hard to make sure Canadians can stay safe, secure and well-fed. I always say, ‘you’ve got to be Grade A and you’ve gotta get cracking in this business’, so I better get back to it.
Chef Lynn and egg farmer Gary West make us proud to be a part of all of the strong Canadian communities. Let’s continue celebrating our local heroes, and find more heartwarming stories by following @eggsoeufs or our #LocalChefLocalHero hashtag.
