When COVID-19 hit and life went into lockdown, people responded in different ways: some started cooking and baking bread. Some began binging Netflix shows. Some started extravagant craft projects. Others brought new puppies and kittens into their families. Christy Perrin and her seven-year-old son Donovan went a different route. They started raising chickens. “We were home, with remote learning. We had the time. It was something to do, and I’d had it in the back of mind for a while,” says Christy. But when one raises chickens, one eventually ends up with eggs. So, when the eggs came along, Christy and Donovan decided to sell them and raise money for charity, and their charity of choice was Inter-Faith Food Shuttle.
Donovan, a rising second grader at Hunter Elementary School, quickly took to the family foray into chicken husbandry. He and his mom named the members of their flock: Peep, Sassy, Periwinkle, and Bluebell. He admits that Peep and Sassy are his favorites and that Peep sometimes runs with him in the yard. He says the biggest change to life with chickens is having to get up early to care for them, but he doesn’t mind. The best thing is collecting the eggs. “Seeing how many there are is really exciting!” he declares.
Donovan is the salesman and sells his eggs for $5 a dozen to friends and neighbors. He says that his customers know that the money is going to the Food Shuttle, where “it will help people who don’t have enough money for food”. Sometimes customers are extra generous and give him more than the cost of the eggs. Donovan and Christy recently brought a donation of $50 collected from egg sales to Camden Street Learning Garden and presented the check to Community Garden Manager Marshall Dietrich. Proof once again that one is never too young to join the work of helping those in need.
