Each year, Texas hunters harvest several hundred thousand white-tailed deer, andmany of those animals end up being donated to help those in need of food. The hunting season is a great time to remove surplus deer from the landscape and help provide less fortunate families with lean protein. More venison could be donated, but many hunters feel a little funny about paying for the processing of a donated deer that they already harvested, quartered and delivered to the processor.
If you hunt in or around Brownwood, then The Deer Project will take your venison cost-free to the hunter. An annual raffle prior to the deer hunting season is helping an organization feed the hungry. Good Samaritan Ministries is a Brownwood volunteer agency that provides meals for hungry children through food donations.
One of their programs, The Deer Project, uses donated deer meat to assemble their meals. “If you don’t need the meat you can still hunt and donate it, and know it’s going to a great cause,” Misty Bowers, Good Samaritan employee, said. Hunters who want to donate can have their meat processed for free through a company that works in conjunction with Good Samaritan.
Although the service requires no additional costs for hunters to participate, maintaining the initiative puts demand on Good Samaritan to find funding. One of the ways they do so is through annual raffles.
Participants in this year’s raffle have a chance at winning a Yamaha Grizzy 4-Wheeler.More information can be found on their web site.
Another cost-free, deer meat donation program includes Hunters for Good. Hunters can also donate harvested venison and pay for processing at Hunters for the Hungry. As expected, the program that works best for you will depend upon location and participating processors.