Maryland has had small-scale venison donation programs in various parts of the state for more than 20 years, but now there is in place a grass-roots organization that officials say has the potential to produce red meat for 1 million meals a year.
"If we could get 5,000 deer donated, that would mean 1 million meals," said Richard Wilson, executive director of Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry, a charitable organization headquartered at Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hagerstown.
"The frustrating part for me and 38 volunteers across the state is that 1 million meals is so attainable, but we haven't yet been able to put all the pieces into place."
The largest missing piece, Wilson said, is funding to pay the $35 cost of butchering each deer at 26 participating processing plants across the state.
As of Nov. 28, the opening day of firearms hunting season for deer, Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry had received donations of 14 tons of venison. That included five tons from opening day and nine tons from the early portions of bow and muzzleloaders season and the one-day youth hunt.
The 14 tons of venison, Wilson said, works out to 128,000 meals, more than half of which will go to the Maryland Food Bank, while the rest is passed along to church and community programs feeding the needy.
"We were about $7,000 in the red before firearms season hit, and I am afraid to see how far we are in it now," said Wilson, 52, who retired from his position as an art teacher with the Washington County public school system last year to run FHFTH. "We're working to raise more money, but it doesn't happen in a day."
P. Douglas Wigfield, alternative funding coordinator for the Department of Natural Resources and Eastern Shore representative for FHFTH, said the last statewide venison donation program shut down in 1996 because it could not keep up with the butchering fees.
"DNR didn't want to see a win-win situation end," said Wigfield, formerly eastern region wildlife manager for DNR. "So last year the department and the National Rifle Association sponsored a donation program for firearms season only.
"And then I read about a small program in Washington County."
That small, church-sponsored program turned out to be run by Wilson, who graduated from high school in Hagerstown two years ahead of Wigfield.
At an average of 50 pounds of venison per deer, the cost per pound works out to 70 cents compared to a couple of dollars and up for each pound for beef. The same 50 pounds of venison makes 200 quarter-pound portions.
"It would be so exciting, if it works," said Bill Ewing, executive director of the Maryland Food Bank. "This is a big deal for us, a source of protein-rich food we get so rarely."
A key to reaching the goal of 5,000 donated deer may lie in the thousands of deer taken each year by farmers on crop damage permits, which allow farmers to kill nuisance deer to protect their crops.
If 3,500 deer killed on crop damage permits and 1,500 deer killed by hunters were donated, Wilson said, then 1 million meals are possible. The cost of processing the deer would be $175,000.
Donations of $150 per year by 25 percent of the 4,800 churches in the state would raise $180,000, Wilson said.
If the state's 23 counties were to appropriate equal funds, Wilson suggested, the cost would be just over $7,600 per county.
"In county budgets," he said, "that is peanuts."
According to Wilson, 16 major food banks as well as church and community support systems are using venison from FHFTH.
To date, Wilson said, donations have ranged from $3 to $300 from individuals, with the largest at $4,000.
"After the first day of firearms season, when I realized we could be very far into the red if we continued to accept donations, I
went to my pastor, Rev. Ray Shriver, for advice," Wilson said. "He told me, 'We will trust in God. He will make it work.' "
Information on how and where to donate deer or funds to FHFTH may be obtained by calling 301-582-4506, writing the organization care of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, 216 N. Cleveland Ave., Hagerstown, Md., 21740, or by accessing the Internet at www.hfth.org.
Pub Date: 12/10/98