Would This Bother You? Donated Eggs and Expectations

When my flock grew and the winter hit, we stopped sitting out in the cold on the side of the street to sell our eggs. When they began building up, we contacted the local homeless shelter and offered to donate extra eggs when our fridge became too full. The person whose ministry this shelter is also runs a thrift store connected to it. Several times, we've donated 10-15 dozen eggs to the shelter in our newly purchased cartons. The man bought a couple dozen for himself each time and took the freebies for the homeless residents. We are getting about 30-35 eggs every day.

Today, we had about 30 dozen in the fridges and called to see if they needed any eggs, tellling them that we had 7-8 dozen at least. My DH drives the 15 miles to the thrift store with a cooler full and a sack full of eggs. The guy wants 2 doz for himself and takes 7 dozen for the shelter. This is the part that bothers me: he asks if we can set up a schedule for my DH to deliver free eggs to the shelter. He told him no, we cant do that because in the spring we sell all our extras to pay for feed. I'm thinking, why cant you offer to come pick up the free eggs in their brand new cartons?
And we asked them to save the cartons. Well, the ones we got back were the filthiest things and my DH said he'd rather burn them than put eggs in them, even if they were washed. Also, he was buying the eggs for himself for .50/doz less than our usual prices.

Seems to me that it's enough to donate fresh, freerange eggs in brand new cartons (which cost about 25 cents each and think of the value of the eggs today!) and that this man could at least come pick them up. We have no income other than the retirement pay and are driving an older truck that may get 13 mpg if we're lucky. I'm all for helping out, but there has to be a limit. If someone was going to give me something of value, I wouldnt expect them to deliver it, too. I'd appreciate the gesture, too, but I'm not sure our gesture is really being appreciated here.

What I want to do is let them call us if they ever want anymore eggs, not contact them at all. If I've just fed my extras back to my girls, then they'll be out of luck. And the price is will be our normal price for the ones they buy, no more discounts since we are already giving something of value to them.

What do you guys think?

 

I wanted to do it and I felt good about it, but this thing today really put us off. It almost feels like you give someone your coat and they ask for the shoes off your feet, too, then ask what you'll have for them next time. The shelter had about 20 people living there, so they would go through lots of eggs if they cooked them every day for the residents, not to mention using them in cooking.

 

The only food pantry is associated with the homeless shelter. Remember, this is a very small town and it's a miracle there is even a homeless shelter at all. Since we dont work, we dont know many people at all and the one neighbor who knows everything about everybody ( and coincidentally volunteers at the thrift store associated with the homeless shelter) is out of town, or I'd ask her to consult her "network" for us.