HUNTERS HELPING THE HUNGRY

Hunters Helping the Hungry Program provides nutritious venison to help feed needy West Virginians.  This successful venture of 15 years, (netting 588,937 pounds of meat), is the result of the cooperative efforts between the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, Mountaineer Food Bank and dedicated deer hunters. 

Hunters who legally harvest a deer during deer hunting season who do not wish to keep the meat may donate it to the program by delivering the deer to the nearest participating USDA approved meat processor located throughout the state.  The processor then skins, de-bones and grinds all the meat.  Then it is packaged into two-pound packages, frozen and held for pick-up by Mountaineer Food Bank.  The hunter is not obligated to pay any processing fees but may make a donation to offset that fee if they would like.

The number of deer donated during the 2006 deer hunting season was 1,030.  This provided a total of 43,460 pounds of venison which was donated and distributed through the food bank’s network of qualified charitable agencies during the 2006 season. This is the predominant source of red meat for needy clients.

Mountaineer Food Bank is a certified member of America’s Second Harvest, a national network committed to feeding the hungry.  The food bank is a non-profit organization inspected and approved by the West Virginia Department of Agriculture.

There are many people involved in this project, but participation by hunters and meat processors is the key to success and to feeding West Virginia’s hungry.

To get a list of the participating processors, click here.

For more information about the Hunters Helping the Hungry program, contact the nearest District Game Biologist.