Needy Missourians could get 300 tons of meat from deer hunters this year

Thousands of needy Missourians will have meat on the table this fall, thanks to a powerful combination of citizen action and corporate cash.

9/26/2005

JEFFERSON CITY—Tim Brooks and Scott Rubinstein come from very different places, but they share something special. Each one knows how it feels to help thousands of people.

Brooks is lifelong hunter who grew up in on a farm near Glasgow. His interest in the outdoors led him to a career as a private land conservationist with the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Rubinstein, a self-described “city boy,” grew up in St. Joseph. Now he works in public relations for Bass Pro Shops, one of the nation’s largest hunting equipment retailers.

The common thread that unites Brooks and Rubinstein is Share the Harvest, a program that channels meat from deer hunters to needy Missourians. Hunters donated more than 138 tons of venison to food banks and other charitable organizations through the program last year.

Although the program is administered by the Conservation Department and the Conservation Federation of Missouri, all the work is performed by volunteers. Local sponsors recruit meat-packing houses to process deer. They also line up food banks and other charitable organizations to distribute processed meat to needy families.

Brooks got involved in Share the Harvest three years ago, adding his energy to a program that Pike County Conservation Agent Mike Christensen started. The program was accepting 75 deer per year when the two set out to increase donations. Last year they brought in 556 whole deer, plus a small amount of partial donations. The total yield was more than 36 tons of venison.

“I like to translate that into quarter-pound hamburgers to get across the amount of food it represents,” said Brooks. “Last year’s donations from our county alone equaled almost 100,000 quarter-pounders.”

Applying the same math, statewide venison donations amounted to more than 1 million thick, juicy venison burgers last year.

The logistics of handling that much meat can be daunting. For one thing, you have to make donating deer affordable for hunters. Meat for Share the Harvest must be processed by commercial packing houses, which charge approximately $60 per deer. State and local Share the Harvest sponsors try to pay as much of this cost as possible for hunters who donate whole deer.

“If you know that you can shoot a doe and drop it off at the processor without paying a dime, you are much more likely to become a donor,” said Brooks.

Money for Pike County’s Share the Harvest program came from several sources. The Conservation Federation chipped in cash from a statewide network of donors to pay $35 each for processing whole deer. Brooks and Christensen worked to find enough money to pay the remainder of processing costs.

Elks Lodge No. 791 and its Trimble House senior citizens center put up $3,350 to defray processing costs. The Pike County Area Quail Unlimited, the Pike County Chapter of the Quality Deer Management Association and the Twin Rivers Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation also contributed cash.

The next challenge local Share the Harvest programs face is finding a way to transport and store hundreds of deer carcasses and the resulting processed meat. Pike County cleared this hurdle with help from Witte Brothers Exchange, a trucking company headquartered in Troy, Mo. The company lends one of its refrigerated tractor-trailer trucks to the local Share the Harvest each year.

“Without them, this program wouldn’t be anywhere near where it is now,” said Christensen.

The Central Missouri Food Bank in Columbia also has sent a refrigerated truck, and Pike County resident Kyle Reed donates the use of a 6- by 10-foot walk-in freezer to hold processed meat until it can be distributed.

“We even get help from the Pike County Commission,” said Christensen. “They keep the refrigerator units running. Volunteers check in deer and put them in the trailers. Others are involved, too. It takes a lot of people working as a team to run a program this large.”

Local Share the Harvest groups also need meat processors willing to participate in the program. Hiltys Custom Butchering in Bowling Green agreed to butcher donated deer for $35, the modest amount that the Conservation Federation would pay. Woods Smoked Meats agreed to do the job for $60, leaving only $25 per deer for the local sponsors to cover.

Food banks in Pike County were delighted to get such a bonanza of meat. The county collected enough to be able to send some to food banks in St. Louis, too.

Brooks said having four places where Pike County hunters could drop off deer helped boost donations. Donating deer will be even more convenient this year, since hunters don’t have to visit check stations first and then make a second trip to a drop-off point.

Brooks said he has high hopes for Pike County’s Share the Harvest program this year. He said several things are working in their favor.

One is that more landowners are using hunters to thin their deer herds. Some are practicing quality deer management, removing female deer and antlerless male deer to increase the number and size of remaining bucks. Others are trying to solve problems with crop damage or deer-car accidents. These landowners simply want fewer deer.

In either case, few landowners want to shoot and eat as many deer as they need to remove. Share the Harvest is an easy, affordable solution.

“This gives them someplace to take those deer,” said Brooks. “We make it affordable and everyone benefits.”

Rubinstein’s interest in Share the Harvest grew out of his work as promotions manager at Bass Pro Shops’ new store in Columbia. His responsibilities include getting more people to visit the store and making sure Bass Pro Shops is a good corporate neighbor. Share the Harvest offered excellent opportunities for both tasks.

“We want people to come to our store, and deer hunters are an excellent group for us,” said Rubinstein. “We also want to make a positive impact by being involved in the community, not only in Columbia but statewide.”

Working with Conservation Federation Executive Director Dave Murphy and the Central Missouri Food Bank, Rubinstein and Bass Pro Shops officials decided to set up a venison donation drop point at their Columbia store during the urban and youth portions of firearms deer season. Hunters who donate venison there will receive coupons good for a 15 percent discount on purchases made at Bass Pro Shops that day.

Besides accepting venison donations, the Columbia Bass Pro Shops store will have phones and computers for hunters to telecheck their deer during the urban and youth hunts. Rubinstein said he hopes the events will give deer hunters in central Missouri a new place to come and socialize with other hunters. This is one of the traditional roles of check stations, which have been phased out this year.

Bass Pro Shops also has devised a program to encourage hunters and anglers to support Share the Harvest financially. Through Oct. 2, customers checking out at the Columbia store will be asked if they would like to add $1 or more to their bills to underwrite deer processing costs. Those who do will be entered in a drawing for bowhunting equipment and clothing valued at $750.

“You get one entry per dollar, and you can enter as many times as you like,” said Rubinstein. “Each time is like buying a raffle ticket. Someone is going to get a great bonus for helping feed hungry people.”

Murphy said Bass Pro Shops also is among several corporate sponsors statewide who are helping the Conservation Federation achieve an ambitious goal for expanding Share the Harvest this year.

“We want to double venison donations from last year’s level. We think it’s doable, but we will need a lot more money to pay processing costs.

Last year the Federation collected cash donations of more than $170,000 to support Share the Harvest. To double donations, they need $350,000. So far, Murphy has commitments for $250,000.

Donors who have committed money to date include the Conservation Federation, Bass Pro Shops, Shelter Insurance, the Conservation Department, the Monsanto Company, Anheuser-Busch, Safari Club International, Whitetails Unlimited and the National Wild Turkey Federation.

“Imagine the good we can do,” said Murphy. “If we get $350,000 for processing and get enough hunters to donate, we will get 10,000 deer. That is 325 tons of meat going to people who really need it.

“At the same time, we will help landowners protect their property, reduce damage and injuries from deer-car accidents, help keep Missouri’s deer herd healthy and improve the quality of hunting. I can’t think of any other program where you get that much benefit from such a modest investment.”

The 2005 Fall Deer and Turkey Hunting Information booklet lists names, locations and contact information for more meat processors participating in Share the Harvest. For more information about the program, call (573) 522-4115, ext. 3290, or (573) 634-2322.

- Jim Low -

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