Take an extra moment to savor your omelets, pancakes and bagel breakfast sandwiches this week — a decline in the chicken population has led to an egg shortage across the United States, impacting corporate supermarkets and 5C dining halls alike.
Highly contagious outbreaks of avian influenza in December 2024 have led to a mass depopulation of birds, and in the past month alone, the cost of a dozen eggs has increased by 15 percent.
The general manager of dining services at Pomona College, Jose Martinez, said the egg shortage has not yet impacted services at dining halls Frank, Frary and Oldenborg.
Pomona receives its eggs from four local suppliers — Sysco LA, US FOODS LA, Nature’s Produce and Freshpoint Produce — and has set up contractual agreements to reserve and receive eggs through the end of the semester.
“We have a very good relationship with our prime supplier,” Martinez said. “We’re confident that our supplier will have enough stock to meet our demands.”
Martinez said that despite the looming threat of an egg shortage, the college’s menus have not yet been impacted. The cost of eggs, however, has been rising. Particularly high egg prices have hit California, as 40 percent of the eggs consumed are produced in-state, and production has diminished significantly since the influenza outbreak.
At Pomona, dining halls are already seeing a five to eight percent increase in the price of eggs, according to Martinez.
“We are committed to providing the staples for the semester unless it becomes, like, a 30 to 50 percent increase on eggs,” Martinez said.
In previous years, Pomona has dealt with market crashes and egg product recalls by temporarily altering their menus until things returned to normal. If the current shortage were to worsen, Martinez said that a response could look similar.
“Perhaps not having liquid eggs, but we’d still have hard shell eggs, or vice-versa,” he said. “We’ll work with our chefs and dieticians to find alternatives [that] will still deliver the protein value.”
The eggs used by Pomona dining halls include hard shell, liquid and hard-boiled. When asked about what alternatives might be used, Martinez mentioned Just Egg, a plant-based alternative to conventionally produced egg products, as an adequate replacement.
“They can actually make pretty good burritos,” he said, referring to the plant-based products. “[It’s about] getting creative and making items that are popular to students that can still deliver protein value.”
General Manager of Collins Dining Hall Shelby Walsh and General Manager of McConnell Bistro Miguel Menjivar provided identical email statements to TSL regarding the egg shortage situations at Claremont McKenna College and Pitzer College.
“While we are concerned about the potential supply chain impacts of Avian Influenza, thus far we have been able to maintain our regular menu offerings,” they said. “We review the need to [implement menu changes] daily.”
CMC and Scripps College said they have purchasing teams keeping in close communication with egg suppliers, distributors and purchasing partners regarding the outbreak. They also stressed the flexibility of their menus. Similarly, Harvey Mudd College informed TSL via email that the Hoch-Shanahan Dining Commons has “not been significantly impacted yet” by the shortage.
Audrey Leatham PZ ’28 and Harper Riss PZ ’28 are chicken caretakers at the Pitzer Student Garden. Their jobs involve letting the six chickens out of their coops for 15 minutes during the day to range freely, giving them water and collecting their eggs.
The two said that apart from washing their hands before and after handling the chickens, there was no official policy regarding proper health practices. They also mentioned an infection that spread to approximately three of the chickens over winter break.
“The chickens that got sick got really sick,” Leatham said.
Riss added that while they were not told what illness afflicted the chickens, some still had a noticeable limp because of it.
When asked what the next steps might be for the Pomona dining halls if the shortage were to worsen, Martinez pointed out that California’s location makes it easy to access egg supplies from Mexico and other countries “down south.”
Walsh and Menjivar, on the other hand, indicated that national issues with the shortage would be difficult to bypass.
“Avian influenza is impacting egg producers nationwide and any potential alternate suppliers are experiencing the same issues,” CMC and Pitzer said in their identical statements.
Despite the shortage looming over the horizon, Martinez has found a way to keep positive for these next few months.
“We’re keeping a very enthusiastic approach for the semester,” Martinez said. “We’re hopeful that things will get better by the summer.”
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