A small blurb in a newsletter was all it took to hook Kirk Wall on the idea of coordinating local hunters to meet the growing need of a hungry population.
The blurb in the Good Samaritan Ministries newsletter was for The Hunters for the Hungry program, a national Community Action Program that allowed hunters to donate legally harvested white tail deer to local food banks.
Intrigued, Wall contacted Angelia Bostick, Executive Director of the Good Samaritan Ministries, and asked how much the program had brought in locally. When she gave him the number, he told her, “We can do better than that.”
So after some informal discussions, Weldon Wilson, Kirby and Charlie Cabler became involved and efforts were coordinated with deer processors, hunters, local hunting organizations, high-fence ranchers and supporters of Good Samaritan Ministries to develop The Deer Project.Bostick said when she called the headquarters of Hunters for the Hungry in Austin and explained what they had in mind, she was told to come up with a name and operate the program locally since it could easily stand alone outside of the national program. From there was birthed The Deer Project.
Wall saw the opportunity to rally the local hunting population around the idea of providing a lean source of protein to Brown County residents who were hungry by participating in an activity they already enjoyed, giving back to the community they loved and harvesting the white-tail deer population for the health and safety of the animals and the environment.
Bostick said the project was so exciting for GSM because it connected with “a group of people we hadn’t reached before,” and provided fresh protein for those who came to the food pantry.
Bostick said as the plans grew, she told the organizers that if they were going to bring in all this extra food, they needed somewhere to put it. At the time, Bostick said GSM was using four chest freezers.
Charlie Cabler stepped up and said he could build a freezer from scratch and the organizers went to work gathering donations to build the new freezer.
The Deer Project took on a life of its own aside from The Hunters for the Hungry program and in its first year brought in 5,229 pounds of meat.
In the beginning, GSM asked the hunters to pay the $35 processing fee, but has since begun fundraising efforts to make it even easier for hunters. Through donations and larger fundraising projects, the hunters need only to bring the deer to any of the participating processors and tell them it is for The Deer Project.
And on the other hand, those who want to participate in The Deer Project but who can’t, won’t or don’t hunt, donations in any amount can be made to the project to cover the cost of processing. One dollar is all it takes to process one pound of meat!
Anyone who would like more information about The Deer Project or who would like to make a donation may call the GSM office at 325-643-2273.
Processors Participating in the Deer Project Are:
M & M Deer Processing
4300 CR 278
Zephyr
325.739.2211
Santa Anna Wild Game Processing
503 Wallis Street
Santa Anna
325.348.9121
Ted’s Deer Processing
9901 Hwy 183 N
Owens
325.643.1814
