DES MOINES - Iowa's bountiful deer population will aid many thousands in need of food through a donation program that is expanding to cover all the state for the coming deer seasons.

The Iowa DNR announced that Help Us Stop Hunger (HUSH) has a goal of 5,000 deer to be donated by hunters during hunting seasons which run from September through part of January. Averaging about 50 pounds of venison per deer will yield 1 million quarter-pound servings, according DNR HUSH coordinator Ross Harrison.

HUSH was designed to encourage deer hunters to shoot more deer to help control the population. Hunters who would normally stop hunting after they had enough venison could keep on hunting and donate their extra deer to Iowans in need. Any of the 95 participating lockers throughout the state receive the deer from hunters and process it into ground venison. The Food Bank of Iowa coordinates delivery of the venison through several hundred social service agencies to those in need.

In its first two pilot years, Harrison reported that HUSH received about 3,100 deer from hunters in about the central one-half of the state. The effort was funded mostly by donations with additional help from the DNR. The Iowa legislature has now added a $1 deer license surcharge that will generate more than $325,000, enough to pay lockers $60 per deer for processing and the Food Bank $5 per deer for administration and distribution.

"If it were not for the $1 HUSH surcharge on deer permits, HUSH would remain active in less than half the state," said Jeff Vonk, DNR director. "Hunters can donate any legally taken deer of any sex from any deer season, and we are hopeful they will continue to donate more and more deer to those in need." He said hunters need their regular deer permit to shoot deer for HUSH and that the 5,000-deer goal would be about two percent of the total deer harvested by hunters.

Deer hunters can find a HUSH locker near them by going to www.iowahush.com or from a brochure available where licenses are sold.

Vonk added that the DNR is also working with the Iowa Department of Corrections on a deer donation program for inmates. Details are still under development and will be announced later this fall.

For more information, contact Ross Harrison, HUSH coordinator for the DNR at 515-281-5973, ross.harrison@dnr.state.ia.us.

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