Hunt For The Hungry's History and Progress during it's First 13 Years.
The Growth of Deer Donation in Northeast Wisconsin............
1,039,460 520 TONS!
PROGRAM YEAR
DONATED DEER
LBS. OF PACKAGED WILD GAME
TOTAL LBS. ALL DONATIONS
1995
28
N/A
1,260
1996
47
N/A
2,100
1997
89
N/A
4,000
1998
112
2,000
7,400
1999
240
6,000
17,800
2000*
1,064
20,250
63,000
2001
630
21,250
49,850
2002
1,600
41,000
106,650
2003
1,285
51,500
109,325
2004
2,950
70,000
202,750
2005
1,425
64,500
128,625
2006
2,350
70,700
176,450
2007
2,150
73,500
170,250
TOTALS FOR FIRST 13 YEARS
13,790
420,700
* First Year of Wisconsin Deer Donation
The Hunt For The Hungry Story,
In the fall of 1994, our deer hunting camp in Southern Marinette county included 8 hunters with extra tags to fill. The deer population needed to be reduced on the private land we hunted. We hoped to harvest extra antlerless deer to help balance the herd.
However, we had a problem...what to do with the extra deer we would harvest in an effort to better manage the deer herd on family hunting land.
Donating deer has been going on from the beginning of deer hunting in Wisconsin...long before any organized program was established. Hunters have been food providers for other families they new could not hunt or had need for nutritious venison. Guys in camp led by my brother-in-law Darrell Patz, who owns the land we hunt on, set the deer donation example by their caring generosity to families in their area.
Our camp had already met the needs of families we planned to help out. We would have extra deer to put to good use when we filled the rest of our tags by the end of the 1994 gun deer season.
Our guys in camp met to discuss the need to find a good use for the deer we could not use. I suggested we contact Paul's Pantry in Green Bay to see if they could use the extra deer. I called and set up a meeting with Leo Frigo, the late founder of Paul's Pantry who started the food pantry in 1984. When I walked into his office, I was greeted by a modern day Saint! Leo was very excited when I mentioned our camp would have extra deer we could donate to the food pantry. I asked Leo, "could you use any donated deer?" He said; "We will take all the donated deer you can provide the pantry...God bless you and your buddies in hunting camp for thinking of us."
Leo mentioned a local venison processor, Jerry Melotte of Melotte Meats in Abrams, would process the deer for Free, and in fact had been providing the donation of venison processing for years to Paul's Pantry as his way of helping the needy. Leo always wanted to get a deer donation program organized in the area.
That was the day that Hunt For The Hungry was born..a day I will never forget!
Leo and I continued to talk about the possibility of organizing a deer donation program for our area, encouraging the local media to help us inform and encourage other deer hunters to donate extra deer the following year, 1995.
With the growth of the deer population in our region, we knew other deer hunters would respond with donated deer to get the program off and running. The more we talked about the potential for the deer donation program, the more Leo filled with joy and thanksgiving, considering the potential for "pounds and pounds" of processed donated venison for the needy folks at his pantry.
Leo mentioned the food pantry always needed good quality meat...food that was hard to get and very costly. We sat in his office and put together a rough draft of the program and planned to start the program the next deer season in 1995.
Leo asked me, "What should we call the program?" I said, "How about Hunt For The Hungry?" We agreed that would be the name that would one day become recognized for deer donation throughout Northeast Wisconsin, and eventually around the state.
Leo and I became good friends, bound by our common faith in God and our desire to Honor God by helping meet the food needs of the poor. Leo modeled God's love and care for the poor through his hard work and commitment to the pantry. He poored his life into his ministry. He became a mentor and a great source of encouragement and direction during the early years of the Hunt For The Hungry program.
Leo passed away before he could see the incredible growth of the program in recent years. I will miss him and look forward to seeing him again.
Over the years, Hunt For The Hungry has become a very popular and beneficial program recognized by hunters, and non-hunters alike for it's value to our communities. Everyone benefits from deer donation! The Anti-hunting groups have little to say when the deer we take in go to help others in need. The local media looks forward to helping us promote the program every year. God has truly blessed the program during it's first 13 years. We are excited for the future of deer donation in Wisconsin!
Thank You to everyone who has helped Hunt For The Hungry grow and provide for thousands of needy families....A special Thank You to our friends at Whitetails Unlimited for their support.
Next Step....The Statewide Deer Donation Program is Organized
Prior to the 2000 deer hunting season, the Wildlife Damage Department of the WDNR contacted me and asked for my assistance in helping them organize a "statewide" deer donation program. The first Wisconsin Deer Donation program started taking deer donations during the 2000 deer hunting seasons. Surplus funding from the WDNR Wildlife Damage Program, (funds that are "hunter generated" through license fees and the sale of bonus tags for antlerless deer) have been used to pay for the processing of donated deer and program administration costs.
Hunt For The Hungry has experienced great growth through our cooperative efforts with the statewide deer donation program, working with the good folks at the WDNR Wildlife Damage Department.
Head to the "Wisconsin Deer Donation" website below for more information on the statewide program.
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/wildlife/damage/donation/mainindex.htm
2008 marks the 9th year of Wisconsin Deer Donation. The Wisconsin Deer Donation program has become one of the largest deer donation programs in the United States, based on total pounds donated. During the first 8 years of the statewide program, over 63,200 deer have been donated, including deer from our program. Those deer have provided over 2,800,000 pounds of ground venison for thousands of needy families served through over 700 food pantries in our state.
When you consider only 1.5% of the total Wisconsin deer harvest has been donated the past eight years, the deer donation program has great potential for growth in the coming years.
Deer Donation goes National
In recent years, Hunt For The Hungry has also become the Northeast Wisconsin affiliate to the national deer donation organization, Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry (FHFH) www.fhfh.org The leaders at FHFH share a common goal to Honor God through deer donation with a vision to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of poor families all over Whitetail Country. Many more FHFH chapters and affiliates are being started every year in many states around the country, to establish a strong national deer donation network.
THANK YOU TO OUR FRIENDS AT FHFH FOR ALL THEIR HELP!
The future of deer donation depends on you, the caring and generous deer hunter, serving as a food provider for others in need.
With your help and commitment to this program, deer donation will become a more valuable deer management tool in Wisconsin and continue to provide for the food needs for many more less fortunate families in our state in the years to come.
