DOVER, DE -(Ammoland.com)– During the 2013-2014 deer season, Delaware hunters donated 645 deer to the state’s Sportsmen Against Hunger Program.
The donations were processed into 21,223 pounds of venison, which will provide nearly 100,000 meals for needy Delawareans. DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife staff distributed the frozen ground venison to 30 charitable organizations and food pantries throughout the state.
This venison was processed by eight participating private butchers plus a butcher shop located at the Sussex Community Corrections Center in Georgetown. The venison processing facility is staffed by offenders who are serving sentences in the SCCC’s Violation of Probation Center, and who have been specially trained for the job.
Since the program began in 2005, the facility has processed more than 75,000 pounds of venison. This year, the facility processed 214 deer into 5,417 pounds of venison at substantial savings to the program.
“To improve the cost efficiency of Delaware’s Sportsmen Against Hunger program, we changed from paying our private butchers per deer to paying per pound this year,” said Program Manager Rob Hossler, noting that the change brought cost savings of more than $2,200 for the program.
Though the number of donated deer was down slightly this season from last season’s 701, donated deer this season produced nearly 2,500 pounds more venison than the total of 18,761 pounds for 2012-2013 season.
About The Delaware Sportsmen Against Hunger
Since the Delaware Sportsmen Against Hunger program was founded in 1992 by a coalition of sporting groups, hunters have donated a total of about 421,000 pounds of venison, providing nearly 1.7 million meals to Delawareans in need.