Donating Deer

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Each fall, a local venison processor participates in the Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry, a program that allows hunters to contribute to their local soup kitchens. 

Phillips Meats Owner Casey Phillips shared how the FHFH program works and how local hunters can get involved.

“We’ve been doing this part of this program for about 10 years,” Phillips said. “It’s a great program. We donate to Christ Table and Salvation Army. There’s… this year, so far we’ve done about 35 deer donated to the program, which produced about 2,500 pounds of ground deer. And packaged and sent out the door.”

After nearly 2 months of bow hunting season, Phillips said numbers are slightly higher than last year and that over the past few years, gun season donations seem to be trending downward.  

“A hunter chooses to donate, what they do is they bring a legally tagged deer into our facility,” Phillips said. “We then tag it in and put it through the system at no charge to the hunter. (The kitchens) pick it up here. It’s in 3 pound packages. They pick it up usually a pallet at a time. They take it to their facility and distribute it that way.”

Deer donations must be properly tagged and field dressed. For more information about the Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry and how you can participate you can contact Phillips Meats.