Families celebrate Easter at annual egg hunt in East Garfield Park

Hundreds of families gathered in East Garfield Park on Saturday afternoon to hunt for 50,000 candy-filled eggs ahead of Easter Sunday.

Cornelius Parks, lead pastor at Harvest Worship Center Ministries, has helped organize the annual egg hunt that’s now in its 12th year. It’s the event’s third year in Altgeld Park because the church primarily serves the East Garfield Park community, but Parks said he’s hoping to move it again next year to serve more parts of the area.

Initially, the event started out small, but now boasts 50,000 eggs — 20,000 more than the White House egg roll, though the egg hunt in the Washington uses real eggs.

“We started off with a couple of hundred, and throughout the years it got up to the thousands,” Parks told the Sun-Times. “We realized since it draws a lot of attention, we didn’t have enough, and we don’t like to scale down.”

About 200 to 300 families joined in the egg hunt Saturday.

Parks said the event was hurt by recent economic turmoil, which forced many sponsors from past years to drop out. That’s in addition to soaring prices for food and candy, including eggs, which sees increased demand leading up to the Easter holiday. U.S. egg prices increased again last month to reach a new record-high of $6.23 per dozen.

“This year was tough because some donors uncommitted,” Parks said. And “the economy is tough this year, the price of eggs and the price of candy. The price of everything has gone up from previous years, so when you’re trying to do as much outreach as we are, you have to make sure you know how to budget each event.”

The ministry does seven major events like this a year, including a Love Day celebration in February for Valentine’s Day, but also has several barbecues throughout the summer.

The events all serve to give families a safe place to enjoy themselves, but specifically kids. Parks said giving kids a space to have fun is important, and that’s been overlooked when talking about keeping kids safe and other public safety solutions.

“One of the most overlooked aspects of our community is the kids, so we hope these initiatives can help keep them off the streets,” Parks said. “The city needs healing. … We have to get out of the four walls and make a difference in the world.”

Claudia Lopez, of west suburban Bellwood, brought her 7-year-old and 5-year-old to the event and appreciated the safe space for her young kids.

“Being able to take my kids out to a place where it’s gonna be different type of races, different types of people … it’s a good feeling. I feel good that they’re able to have and do things outside.”

Contributing: Pat Nabong, AP