Hunters can donate the deer they harvest to charity through a state program, if they don't mind plunking down $15 per deer.
Since 1991, the Pennsylvania Game Commission started "Hunters Sharing the Harvest," a program which provides venison to area food banks.
"The food banks redistribute the venison to more than 4,000 local food assistance provider organizations such as food pantries, missions, homeless shelters, Salvation Army facilities and churches, as well as needy families," according to the program's website at sharedeer.org/meat-processors.
Jeremy Lengle, 29, of Pine Grove, bagged a 185-pound, 8-point buck in Lewellyn on Monday morning and brought it into Mease Meats Inc.
This is the fifth year Mease Meats Inc., Pine Grove, has taken part in the program.
"I donated last year. So today I'm ordering 30 pounds of sweet bologna sticks made, and the rest I'm donating, so I'm donating most of the deer. I'd rather give it to somebody who needs it, who's hungry. I'm not hurting for food," Lengle said.
"We get about 10 to 15 hunters every year who come in to do it," Michael Mease, owner of Mease Meats, said Monday.
It costs $75 to process one deer. Through the program, the hunters are required to pay a $15 deductible and the state will pay the rest, according to Tabitha Mease, Mease's wife and the treasurer of Mease Meats.
Lengle said he didn't mind paying the $15.
"I don't mind paying whatever they require, plus what it costs me to get the jerky," Lengle said.
"However, a hunter can cover the entire costs of the processing, which is also tax deductible," according to the program's website.
There are two butchers in Schuylkill County which are enrolled in the program, according to John Plowman, Harrisburg, the program's executive director.
They are: Mease Meats Inc., 68 Sawmill Road, Pine Grove; and U.E. Butcher Shop, 1722 West End Ave., Pottsville, according to the program's website.
"This is our third or fourth year doing it. It's a great program. It serves the needy. We had six last year," Dave Stevenosky, owner of U.E. Butcher Shop, said Monday.
"We ask the hunter to take the deer to one of the butchers listed on our website. There's a bunch of them all over the state, about 125. The processor will work that deer up into venison burger and pack it up into bags, 2 pound or 5 pound bags. Then when the butcher gets a supply of it in the freezer, the butcher will call up the local food bank and the food bank will pick up the whole works. And the food bank will do the distributing," Plowman said.
Hunters Sharing the Harvest has a list of designated food banks and provider organizations which distribute the food, Plowman said.
"There's 21 regional food banks in Pennsylvania and there are 4,000 or 5,000 smaller providers that work through them to get all kind of food-assistance products out to the needy, including our deer meat," Plowman said.
Plowman was out in the field hunting Monday and did not have the list of how many food banks and charitable organizations in Schuylkill County benefitted from the program.
Michael Mease said he sends a lot of the venison he collects through this program to Pine Grove Area Food Pantry at PGACC Church School, 200 School St., Pine Grove.
"I know we take deer meat. And we offer it to the people. We have a distribution once a month, the third Saturday, and, when we have it, that's one of the items they have the option to take," Cathy Nagle, chairwoman of the Pine Grove Area Food Pantry committee, said Monday.
Plowman said Pennsylvania's charitable venison donation program is "transparent."
"The butcher issues a receipt for the meat and I get a copy of that so we can account for all the meat at the end of the season. So you can pretty well track the deer from the woods where it's bagged to the food bank where it's served or distributed," Plowman said.
"Pennsylvania's HSH program is recognized as one of the most successful among similar programs in about 40 states," according to the website for state Rep. Sue Helm, R-104.
For more information, call Hunters Sharing the Harvest, 6780 Hickory Lane, Harrisburg or call 866-HSH-2141