Lawrence County hunters feed the hungry

Charitable hunters in Lawrence County and surrounding areas are being offered the chance to do their good deed for the day by donating deer to a new program to feed the hungry.\nAbout two weeks ago, Lawrence County started its own chapter of the national program Farmers and Hunters Helping Feed the Hungry. Hunters who do not care to eat their quarry can donate the animals to Lawrence County meat processing shops free of charge and can rest assured their gift will feed many hungry mouths through area food banks. But unless the program gets additional funding, it might not be around very long. \nThe program reimburses two processing shops $50 for each animal to dress the meat. However, due to a lack of funding, the program in Lawrence County can only process so many deer free of charge, local coordinator of the program Ryan Jahn said. The program is looking for monetary donations to help defray these costs, he said. \n“We’ve processed about 10 deer so far and only have the funds for 20,” he said. “So, after that, we have to close the doors unless we get more (monetary) donations.”\nHunters willing to donate their deer must first field dress the animal and have it tagged, said Kenny Robertson, owner of The Deer Shop on Porter Burton Road. They can then take the animal to one of the two participating processing shops in Lawrence County, either Robertson’s shop or Drew’s Deer Processing on U.S. 50 West. Hunters will only be asked to fill out a small amount of paperwork, Jahn said.\n“I just joined the program about a week ago,” Robertson said. “So far I’ve had about eight deer and I expect next year will be better.”\nRobertson processes all his donated meat into ground venison and donates it to the food bank at his church, Mitchell Wesleyan Church. Robertson said the deer meat has been leaving the shelves quicker than ground beef.\nDrew Perkins of Drew’s Deer Processing said he had his own program similar to Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry in years past, processing and donating about 100 deer over the years. He joined the program this year, and said the difference between his program and this one is that now hunters donating meat to Perkins no longer have to pay the processing fees. Perkins said he also prepares his meat differently from Robertson.\n“I’ll do back straps, spare ribs, shoulder steaks, hind steaks, neck roast and ground venison,” he said.\nJahn said all the venison is kept in Lawrence county and given to the various food banks in the area. He also said that if anyone is in need of meat, they can personally contact him at 812-583-7598.