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Pennsylvania Outdoor News
Oct. 23, 2020
The demand for donations of venison from food banks has skyrocketed since COVID-19 arrived in March. But John Plowman, executive director of Hunters Sharing the Harvest, believe hunters can fulfill the need.
Since March, Plowman said, the requests from food banks for venison has increased by 50%. He anticipated the demand will continue to grow through the fall and hungers have already started donating deer during the early weeks of archery season.
In fact, Plowman is counting on donations from archery hunters to account for a greater percentage of venison that reaches food banks. During the 2019-2020 hunting season, the Harrisburg-based organization donated 160,445 pounds of venison.
“We usually get 5,000 deer total into the food bank system,” Plowman said. “Archery season comprises 1,000 to 1,500 deer donations, and I think it’s going to eventually cover half of all the deer donations because so many people are bow-hunting and the season isn’t compressed.”
Bill Williams, information and education supervisor with the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Northeast Region, said the agency is going to promote Hunters Sharing the Harvest even more this year due to the rising need from food banks.
The Game Commission donates $55,000 to Hunters Sharing the Harvest, and Williams said it makes sense to get the word out on the importance of donating deer.
In fact, Williams hopes he can practice what he preaches if he’s fortunate to harvest a deer this season.
“If I shoot one this year, the first one is going to the food bank. Most of us have more than one antler-less tag and I think it’s a good time for hunters to consider donating the first deer they harvest,” Williams said.
“People are having a harder time this year, and putting meat into the hands of those who need it is a noble cause.”
Plowman said Hunters Sharing the Harvest fills a void witnessed at many food banks as protein from meat, such as beef and pork, are usually in short supply at the facilities.
Venison is high in protein, he said, and all of the deer donated to the program are processed into ground meat, which makes it versatile for food banks to utilize.
The ground meat from one deer, Plowman said, can provide 200 meals.
“You can do a lot with ground venison,” he said. “Our deer meat is all derived during a three-month period, and the food banks know the time to get it is as the hunting season is progressing.”
While donations remain strong every year, Hunters Sharing the Harvest is facing a challenge in some counties when it comes to finding butchers to participate in the program. Even though it’s free for a hunter to donate a deer, Plowman’s organization still covers the processing costs to butchers.
Hunters Sharing the Harvest maintains a separate account for monetary donations to pay processors, and the organization is partly reimbursed for the costs by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, according to Plowman.
Plowman’s goal is to have enough processors so hunters don’t have to drive more than 50 miles to donate a deer, but there are several counties without any participating butchers.
“No one wants to get into butchering, and there aren’t a lot of deer processors out there to begin with,” he said. “I always work hard to replace the butchers we lose.”
One processor who recently joined the program is Lantz Wren, of Dallas, Luzerne County. He has operated Wren’s Taxidermy and Deer Processing since 2002, but joined Hunters Sharing the Harvest last year.
Wren admitted his shop gets busy during hunting season, but the involvement with Hunters Sharing the Harvest doesn’t require any extra work.
“It helps that all the donated deer are ground meat and you can load it in 5-pound tubes,” Wren said. “It’s real easy to grind and package the meat, and I’m hoping to do as many donated deer as hunters will bring in.”
Since the processing cost for donated deer is covered, Plowman said the program is easy for hunters as well. Another option which could be popular, he added, is hunters can donate a portion of their deer and keep the res. Hunters Sharing the Harvest will cover the processing fees for the donated portion of the deer.
Wren believes the partial donations option will be popular as many hunters like to keep the backstraps or have some of their venison made into specialty products.
He also agrees with Plowman that archery season could be the biggest contributor to the program.
“I think the harvest numbers are going to go down in rifle season because so many people are hunting archery,” Wren said. “Last year, we did more archery deer than rifle. And even though many archery hunters wait for a big buck, they can still harvest a doe in the meantime and donate it to the program.”
Plowman said there are several archery groups in Berks County outside of Philadelphia and in the Pittsburgh area that require their members to shoot does before they can shoot a buck on private land,” he said. “We get a lot of deer through that process.”
