Flexible and multifaceted, eggs make incredible souffles and terrific omelets. Nutritious and delicious, eggs make savory quiches and magnificent custards.

Eggs also make the perfect donations.

"They're the most versatile protein out there," said Wade Smith, Sauder's Eggs' chief operations officer. "Eggs are used in everything you can think of. You can have eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There are a million ways to prepare eggs. They are one of the most cost-effective ways to get protein in diets. They have no sugars, and they're low in fat."

During the first week of November, Sauder's Eggs, which is headquartered at 570 Furnace Hills Pike, Lititz, donated 23,400 dozen or 280,800 large white eggs to Blessings of Hope of Lancaster, Lancaster Food Hub and Lebanon County Christian Ministries, all of which operate far-reaching food banks.

"It was the Sauders themselves deciding to help people who were going to be in need," said Smith, adding that the Sauders recognized an immediate need. "We had access to eggs, and we thought we could help now. We wanted to get food in people's hands immediately. It was important that we feed local people."

"We reached out to Lancaster Food Hub, Lebanon County Christian Ministries, and the rest went to Blessings of Hope," said Smith. "We saw that these three organizations reach a lot of folks. We thought we could have a bigger impact with these hub-and-spoke organizations. We knew they could get them in people's hands quickly. That was an important piece of this, that and the eggs were going to local people."

The 23,400 dozen eggs cost Sauder's Eggs about $50,000 to donate and had a retail value of about $100,000.

"Giving back is part of what we do," said Smith, a resident of Lititz. "We want to work with businesses and make sure everyone has enough. It's something that Sauder's has been doing for years. The community supports us by buying our eggs. We look at it like, 'From our nest to yours.' We work with family farmers, and we distribute eggs to family."

Not only did Sauder's Eggs' generosity positively affect the community, it also had a ripple effect throughout the company. When the donation went public, it provided a morale boost to the company's 350 employees across Sauder's four locations.

"I had the honor of representing the company with the donation, and the people I spoke with were thrilled that we were reaching out to the community," said Smith. "We got a lot of positive feedback. Seeing Sauder's baby blue truck pull up to the nonprofits filled with eggs made people proud. People were really excited by it. It was a big buzz."

Sauder's Eggs also supports the locale in other ways, through sponsorships and community events like the Easter Egg Run in Lititz and by serving breakfasts at local schools. In addition to the Lititz location, Sauder's Eggs operates processing plants and distribution centers in Schoeneck outside of Ephrata; in the Greenfield Corporate Complex in Conestoga Valley; and in Hampstead, Md.

"We're very active in the community," said Smith. "We try to tie into the needs of the local communities where we have plants. One of our directives for employees in 2026 is to encourage volunteerism and spend more time in their communities. We want to make that part of our company culture."

Sauder's Eggs was founded by Frank Sauder 80 years ago, and the family business is now headed by his great-grandson Mark Sauder. Working with about 120 farms of all sizes, located mainly in Pennsylvania, Sauder's Eggs processes and distributes eggs in many of the states in the northeast.

Sauder's Eggs processes about 1.5 billion eggs each year.

"It's mostly family farms, mom-and-pop operations," said Smith. "These aren't large commercial farms. We pack up five skids, 10 skids of eggs, and we have trucks that take them all over the place. Our eggs are almost everywhere you go in the Northeast."