Hunters, farmers donating deer to the hungry

Eager hunters have the opportunity this year to pay $66.50 for the license to kill as many as 36 deer in Maryland's bow, shotgun and muzzle-loaded rifle seasons this winter.

But can one hunter's family eat all of those deer?

"They don't," said Steven White of La Plata. "That's why there is Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry."

The group uses a grant from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources that is funded by a $1 tax on hunting licenses, as well as donations from farmers, to pay butchers to dress donated deer that are then sent to food banks and soup kitchens, said White, the Southern Maryland coordinator for the group.

Rick Wilson of Hagerstown founded the nonprofit group in 1997 after a woman asked him for help loading a road-kill deer into her car trunk.

"I was just totally shocked and surprised that someone would be feeding their family with road kill," said Wilson, the group's president, who described himself as a deeply religious man who takes seriously Jesus' biblical command to feed the hungry.

The group has expanded, sprouting 150 chapters in 29 states and Canada, Wilson said. In Maryland, it donated 2,400 deer last year, and the Southern Maryland chapter accounted for 590 given to food banks and soup kitchens. White said the goal is 600 deer this year.

Dan Baker, the owner of Baker's Meat House in St. Leonard, has worked with the program for eight years; he processed 65 deer for the group last year at a reduced rate. To donate an animal to the program, a hunter must field-dress it, register it with DNR and drop it off at a participating butcher shop.

The program pays butchers $50 to $60 to prepare each deer. The butchers deliver the meat or have it picked up by soup kitchens and food banks.

Brenda DiCarlo, director of the Southern Maryland Food Bank, said her organization receives donated venison from the group through Rick's Place, a butcher's shop in Waldorf.

"Our families love it," she said. "It is in extremely high demand."

The food bank's participating pantries teach client families how to prepare the meat with spices that work with venison's gamier flavor, DiCarlo added.