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Nov
24
Written by:
ODNR Division of Wildlife
11/24/2008
Hillsboro, OH – The Southwest Ohio Chapter of Safari Club International (SCI) and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife will donate venison to the Highland County Homeless Shelter and Samaritan Outreach Services in Hillsboro at 12:00 noon on November 26, 2008. The Homeless Shelter is located at 145 Homestead Avenue, Hillsboro, OH 45133 and the Samaritan Outreach is located at 537 N. East Street, Hillsboro. The donation to Samaritan Outreach will be at 1:00 pm.
Venison that is donated to food banks must be processed by a state inspected and insured meat processor. Hunters wishing to donate their deer to a food bank are, in most cases, required to pay for the processing of the venison. Organizations such as Safari Club International, as well as private meat processors have helped absorb the cost of deer processing in some areas.
Two deer will be donated to the Homeless Shelter and three will be donated to the Samaritan Outreach. This amounts to around 250lbs. of venison. It is estimated that an adult deer will supply a meal for about 200 people. Food pantries generally receive very little red meat donations. Any monetary donations they do receive are then used to buy meat. The monies cannot be used on administrative fees and the people that run the food pantries and banks do so as volunteers and not paid employees. “These folks do an extraordinary amount of work, for free, to make sure that the people in their communities don’t go hungry” said Montgomery County Wildlife Officer Trent Weaver. Officer Weaver is heading up the donation program for Wildlife District Five and is very excited with the number of deer donated by hunters so far this season.
The Southwest Ohio Chapter of Safari Club International has funded venison donations in this area of the state for over ten years through their Hunters Feeding the Hungry program. In December of 2007 the chapter partnered with the Division of Wildlife to award subsidy grants to help pay the processing fee on donated venison.
Hunters in Ohio will have plenty of opportunity to harvest multiple deer again this year during the 2008-2009 deer seasons. For more information on donating venison, visit www.wildohio.com. For information on the Southwest Ohio Chapter of Safari Club International, visit www.sciswo.org.
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