Rick Behrens has watched over the years as hunters bring in fewer deer to be processed at the meat market he manages, Prime Choice Meat Market in Eagle River.
“We've had as many as 450 the last couple of years. We've been down in the 200s. We've been, in the heyday of deer hunting, that was 500, 600, 700 deer at some point,” said Behrens.
As the overall number of deer harvested each year declines, so does the number of deer donated to local food pantries through the Wisconsin DNR’s Deer Donation Program.
Marcus Rufledt is a DNR Wildlife Program Specialist and manages the donation program.
“Obviously, when the program started those first iterations, in the early 2000s had a lot higher numbers, looking at like 4,000, 5,000 up to like 10,000 in the early 2000s. That's 10,000 deer getting donated,” said Rufledt. “It's steadily decreased over the years. We're looking at a good year if we can get over 1,000 deer donated. That's over 40,000 pounds of venison going to those pantries.”
The Deer Donation Program is fairly simple.
Hunters contact a participating meat processor to make sure they have availability. It does not cost the hunters. They do need to get the deer tested for CWD if it’s required for that county.
The deer is dropped off, the meat market turns it into ground venison, then a local food pantry comes and picks it up.
The meat markets do get some compensation from the DNR, though Behrens says it’s not enough to cover the entire processing cost.
Behrens says the Prime Choice Meat Market has participated in the program as long as he can remember.
“The owner has always felt strongly that helping out the community kind of that way is a good thing,” said Behrens.
He’s seen all kinds of reasons hunters bring in a deer to donate.
“If they all of a sudden had a doe run in front of them, and they've already filled their tags. We've had kids, actually, that have donated because they wanted it to go to the food pantry,” said Behrens. “They knew that we've had other hunters that have said, ‘I've got an extra tag and this doe can go to feed people. I've got plenty in my freezer.’”
A single deer typically provides at least 40 pounds of ground venison for a pantry.
The first deer to come into Prime Choice this season for the donation program went to the Boulder Junction Community Pantry.
Behrens says hunters can pick which local pantry to donate to as long as the pantry is willing to pick it up. Prime Choice will also work with the DNR to do the CWD testing for hunters.
Most deer donated through Prime Choice end up going to the Vilas Food Pantry in Eagle River.
Supporting pantries
“It's wonderful because then I can give them another meat choice to choose from,” said Janlee Goska, the pantry’s food manager. “Or that's an added bonus from what the regular meat they would be getting.”
Goska has worked at the Vilas Food Pantry since 2009. She says they’ve always served a lot of seniors, which is still true, but now they’re also seeing more families with children needing food.
The recent delays in SNAP benefits have pushed that even further.
“Our pantry has been blessed with the wonderful community we live in with food donations and monetary donations,” said Goska. “But we've also seen an influx of new people coming in, families and seniors alike coming in and registering. I believe last week we had like five new families come in.”
Goska is always grateful for the venison donations when they come in. So are the people that receive it, even if they aren’t always quite sure what to do with it.
“It's nice to say, you know, make chili out of it, make tacos out of it, make meatloaf and mix it with hamburger,” said Goska.
With back-to-back mild winters, the deer population is doing well—especially in the farmland zones of the state where the DNR says they’ve been underharvested.
That, coupled with the increased need food pantries are seeing, Wisconsin DNR Deer Program Specialist Jeff Pritzl hopes hunters will think beyond their own freezers.
“I think this is a year for hunters to really think about being a hunter for their community as a whole, not just for themselves, and so there’s opportunities to take an additional deer and share that with their community,” said Pritzl.
There are several local meat processors that participate in the DNR’s Deer Donation Program.
Michigan has similar program called Hunters Feeding Michigan. The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission is holding rifle raffle for hunters that donate a portion of their harvest to a tribal food program.
