Pennsylvania Game News - October 2023 - 45

Hunters Sharing the Harvest
Here in Pennsylvania, about half of all
successful whitetail hunters process their
own deer, while the other half take theirs to
a commercial shop.
Last season, though, things hit a snag for
those latter folks. Newspapers around the
state reported on hunters frustrated either
because the number of butchers handling deer
was down, for all kinds of reasons, or because
those remaining were so swamped that they
were turning hunters away, at least until they
got caught up.
If that trend - seen in other states over the
last half-dozen years or so, too - continues, it
could, like a kink in a hose, threaten the flow
of healthy venison to hungry families.
Pennsylvania's Hunters Sharing the Harvest
program channels deer donated by hunters to
participating processors, producing 1-, 2- and
5-pound packages of ground meat that are
distributed to food banks and pantries across
the state.
Hunters donated 6,201 deer, four elk
and 235,532 pounds of venison through the
2022-23 deer seasons. All those numbers
are record highs, said HSH Executive Director
Randy Ferguson. No other state in the country
matched those totals last season, he added.
All told, HSH has delivered more than 12
million servings to hungry people since its
founding in 1991.
But - and here's the concern going forward
- HSH only accepts venison handled by its
network of professional processors. It does
not take venison from hunters butchering deer
themselves at home.
That's to avoid any " loss of control " over
quality, Ferguson said.
" You don't know how long a deer might
have sat before someone touched it, " he
said. " Whether it was properly field-dressed.
Whether it was kept cold, especially on these
days we're seeing more and more where it
might be 50 degrees in November. Whether
it hung out all day.
" There are just so many variables there that
we've always kept it pretty tight. "
That's not been a problem so far. HSH is,
for the most part, maintaining a large-enough
processor web to meet demand, Ferguson
said, with cooperators in all but a dozen or so
of Pennsylvania's 67 counties.
But, he added, there's no denying the
OCTOBER 2023
45
MORE THAN 2 MILLION
recent trend toward fewer and fewer processors
overall.
One contingency HSH is discussing is developing
a fleet of mobile, refrigerated processing
units that could accept donated deer at designated
sites, either for immediate butchering or
transportation to a centralized facility.
HSH directors also are talking with state
officials and experts about what's needed
to prepare more people for careers in meatcutting.
" There's
not a shortage of market demand
for processors, " Ferguson said. " There's really
not. It's just more about having the meat-cutting
experience, an entrepreneurial spirit and
the business acumen to establish a successful
processing business. "
In the meantime, he said, HSH must continue
linking hunters who have deer to donate
with those who need the protein.
" We often look at this from a hunting perspective
because that's who we are and that's
who donates the deer, " Ferguson said. " But in
the end, we are a nonprofit human services
agency feeding the hungry. "
HUNTERS SH
PENNSYLVANIA'S STAT
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2023

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