Nov 25, 2016 By Ben Moyer, For The Greene County Messenger 4 min read

If asked whether they’d like to provide 200 meals to needy people, most people would agree they would help if they could. Most people, however, aren’t aware how easy it can be to provide that helping hand. It’s easy for deer hunters anyway.

One deer donated to Hunters Sharing the Harvest results in 200 meals of nutritious red meat, distributed through local food banks, churches and other community organizations. Of all food groups offered to those in need, red meat is the most expensive. Often red meat is not available through the conventional food assistance efforts. But with Hunters Sharing the Harvest channeling locally sourced, renewable wild protein to these programs, high quality protein that many of us take for granted can be shared with others.

Hunters Sharing the Harvest currently has two certified participating butchers serving hunters and the needy in Greene and Fayette counties. The Hungarian Smokehouse at 534 North Eighty-Eight Road just north of Carmichaels accepts, processes and distributes deer from throughout the productive deer-hunting reaches of Greene and Washington counties; and Haines Meat Processing at 425 Wirsing Road in Gibbon Glade serves the mountain area.

All a hunter needs to do to help is drop a deer off at one of these participating processors. Pennsylvania’s Hunters Sharing the Harvest program is unique among the states. Here, because of the generous support of corporate and state agency sponsors, hunters no longer need to pay a deposit to the butcher when they donate a deer. The butcher’s fees are paid by the sponsors that support the program before the hunting season even begins.

The list of Pennsylvania sponsors is long and impressive — most impressive in its diversity and its breadth across the state.

“These are the behind-the-scenes heroes who, along with hunters, make it all happen,” said Hunters Sharing the Harvest executive director John Plowman of Harrisburg.

Earlier this fall, 50 or so people gathered at the Alpine Hunting and Fishing Club near Bridgeville to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Hunters Sharing the Harvest and a million pounds of venison donated by Pennsylvania hunters since 1991.

Before cutting an ornate cake, Plowman recognized and thanked program sponsors, board members, volunteers, food banks, participating butchers, and hunters who provided the donated meat.

“This all starts with the hunter in the woods,” Plowman said. “If you’re a hunter with an impulse to help and a deer to give, we have a place for it.”

Hunters set an all-time record in the 2015-16 hunting year, donating 109,750 pounds of nutritious deer meat that resulted in 532,000 meals provided to Pennsylvanians in need.

The annual goal for 2016 is to reach the 100,000-pound plateau once again.

“With more people in need than ever before more hunters are needed to donate deer to HSH this year so we can reach our annual goal of processing and distributing 100,000 pounds of venison to the hungry,” Plowman said. “To reach this goal more certified deer processors are needed statewide. We currently have 17 counties lacking a certified butcher in the program.”

Because of the HSH network, however, which distributes ground venison to more than 5,000 community charities through 21 regional food banks, needy Pennsylvanians in every one of the state’s 67 counties benefit.

Sheila Christopher, executive director of Hunger-Free Pennsylvania, the state’s largest non-profit provider of food for the hungry summed up what hunter donation and program sponsorship means to people in need.

“We are so grateful for this program,” Christopher said. “Over the years, food banks tried to evolve to where they could provide more highly nutritious foods. Now, by partnering with Hunters Sharing the Harvest, we are able to do that.”

For complete information about participating HSH sponsors, butchers and how to donate a deer, visit www.sharedeer.org