The Ohio Division of Wildlife partners with Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry to donate deer meat to the hungry.
Tribune News Service
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Rick Wilson was driving along a Virginia highway one morning when he spotted a woman dressed in rags by a rusted-out car on the side of the road.
Thinking she had broken down, Wilson stopped to see what was going on. Soon he was helping the woman drag the fresh carcass of a six-point buck from a nearby field and load it into the trunk of her car.
The woman said she wanted the roadkill to feed her family, he said.
The encounter stayed with Wilson all the way back to his home near Hagerstown, Maryland, and led him to start a program through his church to donate deer meat to needy families.
That was more than 25 years ago. Today, the program has evolved into non-profit Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry. It’s run by Wilson’s son, Josh, and operates in a number of states, including Ohio where it partners with the Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife.
One of the lasting elements of the program has been adults passing along to their children not just a love of hunting, but a desire to feed the hungry, Josh Wilson said. “Now you’re talking about leaving a legacy through family.”
Last year, 1,132 deer — or about one-half percent of all the deer killed by hunters in Ohio and checked with the Division of Wildlife as required by law – were donated to some 60 charitable organizations across the state with help from Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry.
That comes out to about 57,000 pounds of venison or more than 225,000 servings when you consider the typical deer provides about 50 pounds of meat for about 200 meals, according to the Division of Wildlife.
Supporters of Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry believe it could provide even more needed protein to families if more hunters were aware of the program and more butchers were willing to participate.
Network of volunteers
The program relies on a network of volunteer coordinators around the state who raise money to pay qualified butchers to process the venison into ground meat that is then sent to food banks, homeless shelters and the like.
Bob Hanusosky, who works for a janitorial company and is assigned to the Ursuline College account, has been a network coordinator in Northeast Ohio for the past 12 years.
“It’s really been awesome,” he said.
Hanusosky directs hunters to Custom Deer Meats in Middlefield, which butchers the deer at a discount. He then arranges for Country Neighbor Programs, a food bank in Orwell that serves Ashtabula County, to distribute the meat.
Last year, Hanusosky had a hand in the delivery of nearly 700 pounds of venison. Most of it came from deer supplied by the city of Lyndhurst, which instituted a deer management program several years ago.
The culling in Lyndhurst was initially met with considerable pushback, Lyndhurst Mayor Patrick Ward said, particularly by opponents living outside the city, but having the meat given to the hungry has made “some of our residents feel better about the necessary process of wildlife management.”
No cost to hunters
Lyndhurst pays to have its deer processed, but Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry will pay the butchering fees for individual hunters as incentive to have them donate their kills.
The Division of Wildlife is kicking in $30,000 to the program this year. At one time it gave much more, said David Kohler, wildlife program administrator for the Division of Wildlife. The state’s primary interest in the program is to encourage hunters to kill more deer in order to control their populations, he said, but the ability to help the needy is an added benefit.
Walmart and the National Rifle Association have been generous donors over the years, Hanusosky said, but he has also helped raise money locally through such events as spaghetti dinners and gun raffles.
Rick Ferdig, a Kent State professor who lives in Hudson, also operates as a coordinator. Last year, his chapter provided financial support for the processing of 125 to 130 deer that were butchered by Duma Deer Processing in Mogadore.
Duma Deer owner Dave Duma said most of the meat his shop butchers for the program goes to homeless shelters in Akron and Canton.
Butchers wanted
The program works well for hunters because it allows them to keep hunting even after their own freezer is stocked with venison, he said. “Hunters love it. They absolutely love it.”
The program could benefit if more butchers were willing to participate, Hanusosky and Ferdig said, because it would provide greater convenience to hunters. Part of the problem is that many butchers aren’t around anymore.
“A lot of them went out of business during COVID,” Hanusosky said.
And not just anybody with a knife can do the job. Only a licensed and inspected shop can do business with Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry. “We just can’t have somebody doing it in their garage,” Hanusosky said.
Duma Deer, for one, has been working with Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry for many years to great satisfaction. Dave Duma appreciates the chance to do something for others.
“The Lord’s been good to me,” he said, “and I’d be selfish not to share with others.”
Deer season in Ohio, which has already begun for archery hunters, lasts until Feb. 4, 2024. Gun season for youth is Nov. 18-19, followed by statewide gun hunting from Nov. 27 to Dec. 3 and then on Dec. 16-17. The season for muzzleloaders will be Jan. 6 to Jan. 9.
