Feeding the World with Eggs: How the International Egg Foundation Builds Sustainable Farms

The International Egg Foundation is building an infrastructure of hope across nutritionally disadvantaged regions — and the humble egg is at the center of it.

When a teacher reported her students were getting loud, wild, and "naughty" after a school started serving eggs, that complaint was actually proof something was finally working. Children who'd been running on empty now had enough protein to act like kids again.

In this episode, Brandon Mulnix sits down with Cassy Price, the first dedicated staff member of the International Egg Foundation (IEF), to unpack how the global egg industry is building sustainable 400 to 1,000-bird farms that turn parents into entrepreneurs while feeding children who need it most.

In this episode:

• The naughty kids story — what a teacher's complaint revealed about nutrition and energy
• How IEF builds 400 to 1,000-bird farms that create local entrepreneurs and feed school programs
• The Honduras First 1,000 Days of Life program — and how one 400-bird barn became a 3,000-hen operation
• The Eswatini breakthrough: hard-boiled eggs preserved for 30 days without refrigeration in extreme heat
• How younger leaders and employees can plug into meaningful philanthropy through the egg industry

About Cassy Price: Cassy Price is the first dedicated staff member of the International Egg Foundation, based in Shropshire, England. She transitioned from the International Egg Commission to lead IEF full time in 2022 and oversees programs across 10 countries.

Resources:

• Cassy Price on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassy-price-98a8b153/
• International Egg Foundation: https://internationaleggfoundation.org
• Prism Controls — farm automation and controls technology for poultry producers: https://www.prismcontrols.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=poultry_leadership&utm_content=ep46

The Poultry Leadership Podcast is hosted by Brandon Mulnix, Director of Sales and Marketing at Prism Controls. New episodes every Wednesday.

Prism Controls
Prism Controls — Farm automation & controls technology for poultry producers. 45 years of expertise.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Hosted by Brandon Mulnix - Director of Sales - Prism Controls
The Poultry Leadership Podcast is only possible because of its sponsor, Prism Controls
Find out more about them at www.prismcontrols.com

Transcript

Brandon (00:00)
Welcome back to the Poultry Leadership Podcast. I'm your host Brandon Mulnix. Usually when a teacher tells you the kids in their classroom are being naughty, loud, obnoxious, full of way too much energy, it's a big problem. But for my guest today, that report was ultimately the ultimate sign of success. It meant those children finally had enough protein in their bodies to actually be kids. Today, we're going to be doing a deep dive with the International Egg Foundation. We're moving past the brochures and the charity labels and we're going to take a real world look at the infrastructure of hope. Joining me is Cassy Price, the first dedicated staff member of the IEF. Cassy transitioned from the corporate side of the International Egg Commission to lead this mission full time. She is the architect behind programs that don't just give food away, but build sustainable 400 to 1,000 bird farms that turn parents into entrepreneurs. Cassy, I've really been looking forward to this episode. Welcome to the show.

Cassy (01:04)
Thank you Brandon. And I love that story about naughty kids. Yeah, bring on the naughty kids. Thank you. Thank you for the introduction and thank you for your interest and curiosity into the International Egg Foundation.

Brandon (01:21)
Well, it's exciting for me just because of connections I have outside of the US. But when I get an opportunity to see what this industry is doing globally and not just locally, because I see all of the different charities and different work in the industry that help provide food to local food banks. But it's not just about the eggs that we're talking about. We're talking about knowledge transfer and a whole bunch of other things that the International Egg Foundation is responsible for. But before we get too far into the story because there's a lot of great things we're going to cover today. Can you give us a little bit of background as to who you are and tell the audience about that accent that you have and where you're based out of?

Cassy (02:03)
Thank you, Brandon. So I'm based out of Shropshire in England. That's on the border with Wales. And I first got involved with the egg industry through my employment with the International Egg Commission, as you said. So I started there back in 2010. And I didn't have previous experience in agriculture. It was actually legal work, my initial experience. But I started with the International Egg Commission in 2010. And I really fell in love with the egg industry and the people working within it. Straight away, I kind of saw that they have this willingness to share their knowledge and experience to develop others. That was my initial start with the International Egg Commission and it was the commission that started the International Egg Foundation, which is a charity registered in the UK and it's also a 501c3 registered in the US. They started that back in 2014 and that was something as staff members that we all worked on. And I loved it. I loved being part of that. And in 2019, we started up a global EggCorp program with Lohmann breeders providing the expertise. And that was one of my first projects with the foundation. And it was a fantastic experience and fantastic to be part of that.

Brandon (03:44)
Well, it's so interesting how these different organizations start. To me, they all seem like they're generations old. And come to find out, the International Egg Foundation is not that old. You mentioned it started in 2014. But what was that moment for you when it really took off?

Cassy (04:03)
Well, when I stepped away from the IEC, the board of the foundation approached me and they said, will you be our first dedicated member of staff? Because we didn't have any dedicated staff members. And they felt there was a point within the organization's growth where they needed their own staff resource. And so that was 2022. And I think having a dedicated staff resource has really helped. That was the moment where it was like, OK, it's not something just being done on the side of people's desks now. This is being pushed independently. And the board very much wanted that. So that was a pivotal point in the organization's history. And to be asked by the board, Cassy, would you like to be a dedicated staff member for the foundation? It was like, absolutely. What an opportunity. So that was a great honor to be asked and to have taken it from there. It's something that I'm very proud to be involved in, given the trust that our partners have given us.

Brandon (05:32)
So you are the resident expert of the International Egg Foundation because you're the staff member. Can you share with the listeners the mission and the vision and really the core of what the International Egg Foundation is all about?

Cassy (05:47)
Well, it's not just me. I have an amazing board. I have an awesome board led by Bruce Dooyema. He came on the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees, they volunteer their time, they pay all their own expenses. Bruce came on board in 2018 and he's just awesome. And we also have Tim Lambert, who is a former CEO of Egg Farmers Canada. We have Chris Pearce from Poultry Management Services, who brings so much passion to the board. We have Steve Manton, who helps us with our egg processing and extending egg shelf life projects. And Pierre Mouy-Bourne from SEVA as well. And they are fantastic. It's not just me. I have this amazing board with me driving forward our vision. And our mission really is to improve access, availability, and affordability of eggs in nutritionally disadvantaged regions. And that's done in a range of different ways. So we support child nutrition programs on the ground, introducing eggs into their intervention feeding programs. So we support them to build their own egg barns so that they have a sustainable and affordable supply of eggs — getting eggs into kids' bellies. Absolutely. And we encourage entrepreneurship in egg farming, either through introducing small scale egg production in really rural locations or by helping take small scale egg farmers to the next level of commercial egg production in their regions. And we do that through training, through poultry starter packs. There's a whole range of ways in which we do this and it's tailored to each project and each country and each set of challenges and conditions.

Brandon (08:25)
Yeah, I'm very familiar with Bruce and the listeners actually, if you go back to Episode 4, Bruce Dooyema was a guest on the Poultry Leadership Podcast. So Bruce's story, he's been one of my main resources as I get more interested in the international side of things as well. And so it's so interesting to see the passion when you get him talking about the International Egg Foundation and the projects. Same with Greg Herbruck and a number of other folks from the industry. I mean, they'd rather talk about that than what's going on back in the US. It's their passion. It's being able to take all of those years of experience and be able to help other people in these rural, very rural areas. I mean, yesterday we were on a call together and we were looking at places four hours outside of capital city up in the mountains. And the biggest questions were, do they have feed? Can they get pullets? What do they need? What's the program? And it was just cool. The collaboration across different people on the call — these are the things that we need to solve to make sure that this project would even make sense. That was really inspiring to me that there's a group of volunteers willing to have those conversations when they could easily be distracted by the pull of the everyday job that they're hired by their companies to do. That was really cool.

Cassy (09:54)
It is cool and Bruce is brilliant. Very operationally driven and he brings with him his expertise — 50 years in egg farming. But also him and his brother, they invested and they set up an egg farm in Mozambique. So they know those challenges firsthand. And they are really generous with their knowledge and their time. So it's a privilege to have him as our chair.

Brandon (10:31)
So as you work through these projects and as you build these programs, what are some of the core key things that these programs have to have established to be sustainable?

Cassy (10:46)
Well, you just mentioned them right there. And each country will have different challenges. But if you can get properly vaccinated pullets — if you can get that as a starting point, that is fantastic. And feed. If you can get consistently good quality feed, vaccinations, and the whole supply chain, then you need to have your market. How are you going to market those eggs? Are you a contract farmer? There are different challenges in different countries. We've had challenges faced with climate — we're dealing with countries that have very hot climates and huge stress to birds. There are issues with the rains. Recently in Mozambique, there was a bridge washed away and we needed to get feed trucks to the farm. That's a massive challenge. There's theft. There's wild predators. There's all sorts of different challenges and you have to look at that and see what can we do to mitigate them. How can we solve this?

Brandon (12:25)
So one of the things I learned was there's a non-compete rule within the International Egg Foundation in terms of not going into other areas where there's already commercial egg production. Why is that important?

Cassy (12:39)
We don't want to disturb that. If there's already sufficient commercial egg production then that work is being done to get nutrition into the region. We want to assist those who haven't got access, where eggs aren't readily available within their communities.

Brandon (13:04)
And you mentioned this 400 to 1,000 birds. Why is that a sweet spot? The magic number.

Cassy (13:11)
Well, that's where you see small scale farmers becoming commercially viable. They're emerging commercial egg farmers. So they're taking it from backyard production to that commercial spot where it is generating income to support themselves. So that's the commercial sweet spot.

Brandon (13:42)
And you mentioned the volunteers that you have on the board. What does it take to get a project from start to finish? Because it can't just be volunteers on a board that get these projects done.

Cassy (13:55)
There are different models. I'd love to give you a quick answer to that, Brandon, but there is no quick answer. There's lots of different models and from start to finish, we are always there for our programs. There is no finish point. We are always there to help and advise them on an ongoing basis. If we're helping entrepreneurial setups, there always has to be some level of buy-in from them. If we're giving a head start on a commercial setup, again there has to be buy-in, but there has to be a degree of discussion about what percentage of eggs are you going to be able to give to a charitable program like a school feeding program, and what percentage can you sell while still being commercially sustainable? I wouldn't say we ever take it to a finish point, because we're always there on hand.

Brandon (15:23)
That's great. What I'm really asking is who makes up the body of IEF that's not just the board level, but the body of companies and people that really work hard to make sure that this is all possible?

Cassy (15:40)
Absolutely. We have what we call an impact network. These are partners on the ground. We always work with a ground partner to run the program. This is industry partners who come on board with us — equipment manufacturers, genetics companies, feed companies, vaccine companies. There is that whole impact network that we are facilitating. And we even have one program where SEVA's local vet has taken on the role of mentoring the farm manager on an ongoing basis, just to provide that ongoing guidance and support. So our network steps forward because they are passionate about this too. They want these programs to succeed and continue being successful. We're always there on hand, but having that ongoing guidance and support means there is continuity in that program.

Brandon (17:12)
That makes sense because of the knowledge transfer — the experience with specific environments, whether it's wet areas or dry areas, the elevation. It's so helpful when you share that knowledge with a local person that's invested. And I really appreciate that about the program. These aren't handouts, these are hand-ups where you're coming alongside as an investment to help build it and make it sustainable. And the charity aspect — are they able to not just make money to support their family, but also give back? So in the case of a local grower, are they donating eggs to a kids' school or some type of program? That's awesome. I've seen that firsthand with Hope for Tomorrow Guatemala, where eggs were really important to the feeding program. Once we were able to connect eggs into that feeding program, it absolutely empowered Hope for Tomorrow to provide a much more sustainable nutrition program. Instead of having to buy all the food, they were actually able to start growing some of it.

Cassy (18:40)
It's about the access to the eggs, yeah.

Brandon (18:43)
And that's the connection piece — being able to share knowledge. I was in that place where I asked, hey, what did you think about sharing your eggs with the mission and connecting them? And then it dawned on them — yeah, this makes perfect sense. And then they had the transportation problem and some other things to solve to get those eggs up into the mountains. That's a problem that you guys have solved in other places. But I really want to get back to why this is all important. I mentioned in the introduction this naughty kids problem that this teacher was having and what a blessing to your ears to hear that. Can you dive into that? Tell me that story.

Cassy (19:39)
Yeah. Well, in the egg industry, we're blessed. We have this fantastic product — the egg. And it is just so packed full of nutrition. And there are areas around the world which do not have access to adequate nutrition. Eggs are just the perfect food for those hungry bellies. This was feedback that we received on one of the projects. A teacher at the school said that it was a school getting an egg a day in their school feeding program. And they said, we've noticed the kids are becoming naughty and we think it's the eggs — the eggs are making these children naughty. And you scratch your head and you're thinking, why would they think this? And then it dawns on you that these children aren't fatigued. They have energy. And it's beautiful. Bring on the naughty kids. The eggs were giving the children energy and this was the result of it. I love that story so much. And it's the why — the nutritional aspect of it — not just high quality protein and nutrition in kids' bellies, but the feedback we get from the head teacher at the Blessman School in South Africa said what a huge difference the eggs were making. The kids were not just more energetic, but they were retaining their learnings. We've seen this in a project in Honduras — the First 1,000 Days of Life program. This is where pregnant mothers go and present themselves to the local medical clinic and they get the option to go on the First 1,000 Days of Life program in the HOI region, where the pregnant mother and each of her family members will get an egg every day until the child is born and is of three years of age. And it's having fantastic results. We visited one family and the mother was saying, yes, this is the child that was on the program, pointing to a child maybe about five years old. And she was saying, he is the clever one. If I need one of my children to go to the shop, he goes. I don't send the older children, he goes. And they put it down to the eggs eaten during pregnancy through three years of life. And it was really interesting during that visit because we saw lots of backyard chickens and we were like, you're on the program, how can you have these chickens? And they said, yes, but the child is going to be three years old soon and we want to make sure that we have eggs as soon as we don't have access to our program anymore, because they see eggs as an important part of nutrition in their diet. And the mothers are seeing the effects and talking to their neighbors and sisters and demand to get on that program has just snowballed. It started with about 50 families and we're hoping to get it up to 100 families now.

Brandon (24:10)
And how are you able to get it up to 100 families? What does it take to get that next step up?

Cassy (24:17)
So this is the Alcatel Valley in Honduras and it's not served very well in terms of nutrition. There's a faith based organization there, Ponds Outreach International, which has a school, medical clinics, and does training in agriculture as well. They set up the First 1,000 Days of Life program. They had issues getting access to eggs, so they started up a 400-capacity barn on their site. They had a staff member they gave some training to and he became the egg farmer with those 400 hens. So they were really restricted by how many families they could serve based on how many eggs they could supply. The farmer also wanted to supply the communities, but there weren't enough eggs to go around. So we visited the program, visited their medical centers, visited the farm. The farmer was doing a fantastic job — 400 layers on the floor. And we looked at the farm and thought, they have the land here, they have the demand, they have the medical clinic network. Why are we limiting what can be done? So we committed to building an egg farm. We brought all our partners on board and built a 3,000-capacity egg farm on the HOI land, which is run by the same farmer. He has now brought his grown-up children into the business, providing more economic opportunity for them. He is selling eggs into the community because there is high demand. But he is also giving around 20% to HOI to keep the First 1,000 Days of Life program going. So they now have that sustainable source of eggs to feed that program. And that was a lot of people coming on board. We had Big Dutchman giving us heavily discounted equipment. We had Hato Lighting donating lighting. They helped get the farm off the ground by donating the first flock of pullets. And AB came on board with funding. We had Keith Herbruck coming on board with funding and project management. We had Sam Kaufman. I'm sure I'm missing some people here. But we had this whole industry come behind it and help make that possible.

Brandon (27:46)
And now because it has a business model of sustainability, as long as they have the inputs — the feed and the pullets — they can continue to sustain this model, which in that case can sustain HOI to continue their program as well.

Cassy (28:03)
We help them start it, but it has that sustainable model, which is really important to us.

Brandon (28:12)
That's exciting to hear. It definitely resonates with the programs that I've gotten to experience. Another program — S1 teeny — you guys had some real challenges there. Can you tell us about those challenges?

Cassy (28:37)
Sure. So this was 2014, 2015 timeframe. There was a whole-of-life orphanage, Project Canaan, run by an American couple who had around 200 to 300 orphans that they needed to feed. But they weren't just feeding the orphans. They were feeding their employees and feeding the surrounding communities — a network of around 32 church feeding programs. They wanted to get something really nutritious, high quality protein, into those diets. So the International Egg Foundation heard what they were doing and the need for nutrition, especially in the diets of these kids, many of whom had HIV. So the quality of protein and nutrition getting into them was really important. IEF helped to design and get the industry network together to build two barns, each of 2,500 hens, providing training, designing them out, overseeing the construction, and bringing all the partners together. Egg Farmers of Canada then took the project over for long-term financing, with feed and pullets mostly donated as well. One of the key challenges was getting near 5,000 eggs a day distributed to the wider community. We did fundraising and got an egg truck. But still, in 30-plus degree Celsius temperatures, the eggs were spoiling before they could reach the kids. So we came together with partners — Sunovo — who very kindly designed a bespoke egg-boiling and egg-chilling machine so that we could distribute eggs hard-boiled. Because these kids need the eggs hard-boiled, ready to eat in their hands. And then we worked with Dr. Fabian De Meester, who came up with a formula to introduce at the egg-boiling stage that would preserve those eggs. Preserve those eggs in 30-degree Celsius temperatures for up to 30 days, Brandon. Up to 30 days. It's a very economical formula. And it continues to preserve those eggs in those temperatures for up to 30 days without refrigeration so those eggs can get out to those kids. Last time I heard they were feeding over 6,000 children a week. It's brilliant. And it's all because the industry comes together and makes it possible.

Brandon (32:22)
Wow. How do we encourage the next generation of leaders to get involved early?

Cassy (32:37)
This is very interesting. The next generation may want to be involved in child support programs. Employment now is so much more than a pay packet and career opportunities. Employees want to be part of organizations that have strong social values, ethics, and that do good outside of the business. And employers are attracting and retaining their teams partly by offering this. Employees not only want to know that the organization is giving back, but they're actively looking to be part of that. This can be anything from fundraising to sharing their knowledge and expertise in whatever field or sector they're in, because we need all of those fields and sectors to make things happen. I've seen an example where employees at one company volunteered their free time to build bespoke equipment for one of our charitable projects. They were so bought into that. And organizations can see that doing good is the right thing to do, but doing good also makes good business. The International Egg Foundation is developing egg production in new markets and providing new market opportunities for businesses to supply their products and services. And they can be part of that while doing good and building up viable egg production in that region. It can be good for everybody. We want that energy, that experience, that knowledge from younger people. Absolutely.

Brandon (35:08)
And how do they get involved right now if someone wanted to find out how they could get involved with the International Egg Foundation? Where would you send them?

Cassy (35:18)
Thank you, Brandon. I would say look at our website, connect with us on LinkedIn, connect with me on LinkedIn. My details are on the website. I love hearing from people saying I want to get involved. It's not about providing the dollars. Of course, fundraising is always needed, but it's more than that. Everyone has something to give.

Brandon (35:47)
I'm in the volunteer ministry side of things at home and I know that there are so many people just waiting to be asked personally to help with a project. So I'm going to ask all of you personally as listeners — will you please help the International Egg Foundation? Will you go to their website, internationaleggfoundation.org? And will you please just reach out to them and get involved? Because this is the personal ask — I'm asking you to help. And don't wait. There aren't a lot of other people who are going to do what needs to get done. I've learned that in ministry: if you're always waiting for somebody else to do it, it's not going to happen. So I'm challenging you listeners to get involved with the International Egg Foundation.

Cassy (36:35)
Thank you so much for giving that call to action. I would just reinforce — the IEF, we are just scratching the surface with our projects. We work in 10 countries, soon to be 12. But we are just scratching the surface and there is so much more opportunity that can be done. Whatever sector you're in, the International Egg Foundation is the foundation for the global egg industry. It's your charity.

Brandon (37:07)
I'm going to give you a magic wand and I want you to solve one problem. What are you going to use that magic wand for?

Cassy (37:17)
What will I use that magic wand for? I always say if we had properly vaccinated pullets readily available, that would give us such a head start. That would make life so much more easy and everything far more feasible and viable. Properly vaccinated pullets with access to them in these countries that have that nutritional need and want to produce their own food. That is the starting point. And then building on board those supply chains.

Brandon (37:57)
Listeners, you're part of that magic wand, because there's somebody out there that can help find and supply these properly vaccinated pullets. And it's going to take the next generation of leaders, of volunteers, of people that just want to get involved with something greater than what they're currently doing — to look outside themselves and give back. So I'm going to continue with that challenge. Cassy, I really want to thank you for sharing your story, for sharing the vision of IEF. Such a powerful reminder. The egg — the humble egg that we all work every day to produce in some form or fashion — we're all part of this industry. It is probably the most potent tool that we have to feed the world and to fix this global nutrition problem. Would you agree with that?

Cassy (38:55)
Absolutely, 100%, Brandon. Thank you for articulating that so beautifully.

Brandon (39:01)
Listeners, if you're a leader in the industry, I want to challenge you. Philanthropy is not something you get to wait to do. It's a leadership muscle you get to flex today. People in your companies are waiting for you to step out and lead in this area. They will follow you. You will become a much better leader when you start figuring out ways to give back. It's been a blessing. I've gotten to experience more blessings than I can imagine and I contribute that to giving back — finding different ways to share knowledge, share expertise, share resources, whatever it takes. If you're willing to do that, visit internationaleggfoundation.org. This conversation hits home for me because of the values that we hold at Prism Controls. We spend our days talking about technology, data, and efficiency in the barn. But all that innovation exists to serve a higher purpose — feeding the world. At Prism Controls, we believe leadership is defined by what you give back. We are proud to support the mission of the International Egg Foundation because we know that when we strengthen the industry, we are strengthening a global solution to poverty and malnutrition. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with one colleague who needs to hear about those naughty kids. As always, thank you for listening and keep on leading.