Hunters for the Hungry helps those in need

With the general white-tailed deer hunting season starting today, so does an opportunity for hunters to help those in need.

The Dallas Safari Club, a conservation organization which is funded by hunters, will be hosting its 25th annual Hunters for the Hungry program. The program allows hunters to donate one or more of their legally tagged deer at a participating processor, who will then donate the meat to those in need.

“One of the main complaints that anti-hunters have is that you’re just hunting for trophy, the meat goes to waste, you are just taking the antlers, the head or the hide,” DSC’s Hunters for the Hungry coordinator Barri Murphy McConnell said. “But, Hunters for the Hungry is just the opposite.”

She said DSC got the idea for the program from Feeding Texas, which is a network of food banks around the state.

McConnell said this will be the third year Graham’s Clear Fork Processing has been a part of the program.

“I was actually looking for some new processors to add to our stable and because I had roots in Young County, I looked in Graham,” McConnell said.

She said Dallas Safari Club reimburses their processors for their costs to process the meat and get it to a charity.

“We only have about 12 processors and they’re usually smaller, independent, mom-and-pop kinds of places,” McConnell said. “We have two or three processors on our list that are big.”

She added they only reimburse each processor for up to 20 deer each season at $60 a deer, which is up from $50 last year and $35 two years ago. She said last year with two processors not participating, there were 150 deer donated.

“What I do is I send them (the processors) a packet of information and in them are some postcards,” McConnell said. “On one side of the post card is for the hunter to fill out, we have his name, the number of deer he is donating, his address, his phone number and he signs it. That way at the end of the deer season we collect all the cards, like I said a maximum of 20 for each one, but we do give credit to each hunter who donated even if the processor turned in more than 20 cards. Every hunter who donated will get recognized with their name listed in article in a newsletter in the spring.”

Clear Fork Processor Owner Jamye Rogers said he donates the meat from the program to the Young County Food Pantry.

For the rest of the story, see the Saturday, Nov. 2 edition of The Graham Leader.