Sportsmen Against Hunger Program Distributes More Than 26,000 Pounds Of Venison To Delawareans In Need
Delaware –-(AmmoLand.com)- During the 2009-2010 deer season, hunters donated 777 deer to the Delaware Sportsmen Against Hunger Program.
The donations were processed into 26,546 pounds of venison, which will provide more than 100,000 meals for needy Delawareans. DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife staff is working to distribute the frozen ground venison to more than 30 charitable organizations and food pantries throughout the state.
This venison has been processed by nine 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 nearly 40,000 pounds of venison. This year, the facility processed 213 deer into 8,110 pounds of venison at substantial savings to the program.
This year’s deer donation numbers are slightly lower than the total for 2008-2009 season, which was 892 deer and 28,731 pounds of venison. Since the Delaware Sportsmen Against Hunger program was founded in 1992 by a coalition of sporting groups, hunters have donated a total of 329,423 pounds of venison, providing more than 1.3 million meals to Delawareans in need.
For more information on the Sportsmen Against Hunger Program, please visit the DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife website at:
www.fw.delaware.gov/Hunting/Pages/SportsmenAgainstHunger.aspx.