By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University
Oh, dear. There are too many families going hungry in Kansas, and too many people who don’t have enough protein in their diets.
Today we’ll learn about an organization that is helping those who are food insecure while providing an alternative outlet for our state’s outdoor sportsmen – specifically deer hunters.
Tony DeRossett is coordinator of the Kansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry program, or KSHFH. DeRossett said he spent many hours in a deer stand as a teenager.
In 2001, he read an outdoor magazine article about a Maryland program through which hunters could donate their harvested deer to families needing food. He connected with two other Kansans who had inquired about the program and was able to join them in a meeting with top officials from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.
That was the beginning of the Kansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry program. “We hoped to get 10 deer donated that first year,” DeRossett said. “We got 180.”
The program has proven popular ever since. Hunters can donate any legally harvested deer or elk to a participating meat processor. KSHFH will pay $75 toward the cost of processing the venison. Donated game must be field dressed and legally tagged.
This program came to the attention of coalitions addressing health disparities in southeast Kansas. One member of those coalitions is Lea Kay Karleskint, a SNAP-Ed nutrition educator for participants who are eligible for USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the Southwind Extension District of southeast Kansas.
“The coalitions were conducting food drives for the hungry. We tend to get lots of canned goods and vegetables but not a lot of protein,” Karleskint said.
When the coalitions learned about a program of donated deer, she and others volunteered to look into it.
Karleskint spoke to DeRossett at the Kansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry program. She and others reached out to local meat processors.
“I couldn’t believe how quickly it happened,” Karleskint said. They found two processors in nearby communities who agreed to participate. Those were locker plants in the rural communities of Moran, population 466 people, and Bronson, population 304 people. That’s rural – but there’s more.
Donated meat is processed and then donated to local food pantries and others who provide food to needy families. In Fort Scott, the meat went to the Beacon Food Pantry and to the First United Methodist Church, which serves 500 free hot meals to community members each week.
Through Allen County THRIVE, Karleskint was able to arrange donations to Humanity House in Iola. Humanity House then provides donated ground venison locally as well as to food pantries in the rural communities of Humboldt, La Harpe, and Elsmore – population 50 people. Now, that’s rural.
In the Southwind Extension district, 50 deer were donated in the first season. “The first load of processed meat was 354 pounds,” Karleskint said. “(The pantries) were out within a week.”
Ultimately, 3,000 pounds of ground venison was provided for food-insecure families.
“One of my goals for next deer season to is find participating lockers in all four of our counties,” Karleskint said.
“I loved the collaboration,” she said. “The KSHFH, deer hunters, lockers, and local food pantries came together so willingly to provide nutritious food to those in need. It’s incredible to witness how a simple idea sparked in a coalition meeting has grown into a meaningful program that makes a real difference in our community in such a short amount of time.”
Statewide, DeRossett estimates that the program has taken in as many as 1,000 deer over the years. Since it is possible to harvest 200 meals from a single deer, he estimates that this program has provided nearly 3 million meals for hungry Kansans.
“It makes a lot of difference,” DeRossett said.
For more information, go to www.kshfh.org.
There are too many food-insecure people in our state today. We commend Tony DeRossett, Lea Kay Karleskint, and all those who are working to fight food insecurity in our communities.
How can we find an additional source of protein for consumers who need it? Oh…..Deer.
Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at https://www.huckboydinstitute.org/kansas-profiles. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.huckboydinstitute.org.
