West Virginia’s deer hunters deserve a pat on the back.

They donated 1,224 deer to the Division of Natural Resources’ Hunters Helping the Hungry Program in 2007. That’s a 19 percent increase from 2006, when hunters donated 1,030 whitetails to the cause.

Since an average deer yields roughly 40 pounds of boned, ground venison, it’s reasonable to estimate that West Virginia’s hunters put 25 tons of venison on needy people’s tables this year!

The program, begun in the early 1990s by former DNR director Ed Hamrick, allows hunters to donate any deer they kill. The donated animals are butchered at designated meat-processing centers throughout the state, and the venison gets trucked to the Mountaineer Food Bank in Gassaway for distribution.

Food pantries, soup kitchens, senior centers and needy families receive most of the donated meat. Since the program’s inception, Hunters Helping the Hungry has been the Mountaineer Food Bank’s largest and most reliable source of red meat.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 1, 2008 at 11:26 am and is filed under Hunting, West Virginia, WV DNR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.