Hunters Help Provide Meals for Needy

Pennsylvania hunters are helping to provide meals for the less fortunate during this winter season through an independent program in union with the Pennsylvania Game Commission. According to commission spokesperson Jerry Feaser, "Hunters Sharing the Harvest" can help provide 200,000 meals to needy families each year.

Since the programs beginnings in 1991, hunters have been very willing to help out in providing meals over the winter season. Hunters have the option to donate extra venison from their catch to more than 3,000 local charity providers.

“Hunters are generally a very generous group,” Feaser says. “They are more than happy to help out by donating venison and also money to help cover the processing costs for those deer.”

To donate the nearly 200 meals that can be gained from a single deer, hunters simply pay a $15 tax deductible processing fee for each processed deer, and the remainder of the processing is covered by HSH sponsors.

“Hunters will donate either all or portions of a deer that they don’t plan to use for their families,” Feaser says. “Some hunters are able to harvest additional deer beyond what they may able to use to feed their own families, and this is a good way to help their community.”

Those hunters interested in participating in Hunters Sharing the Harvest can sign up on the event’s Web site. Feaser says donors should research local venison processors who are also participating in the event.