Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
Toll Free: 800-234-6575
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Laura Newell-Furniss of Hunters for the Hungry presents an award to Ray Bowen, 2008 Dan River District Ruritan governor, honoring the clubs in the district for 100 percent participation in Hunters for the Hungry. (Contributed photo) |
Monday, November 30, 2009
By PAUL COLLINS - Bulletin Staff Writer
The Hunters for the Hungry program provides venison for thousands of people in this area, according to several local agencies, food banks and ministries that help the needy.
Through the program, hunters donate venison, which professional meat cutters cut, wrap and freeze. The meat is distributed without charge to food banks and other nonprofits, according to Virginia Hunters Who Care, a nonprofit corporation that operates the Hunters for the Hungry program in Virginia.
Laura Newell-Furniss, director of Virginia Hunters Who Care (VHWC), said that in 2008, five agencies in Henry County and Martinsville (Community Storehouse, The Mission Center, Henry County Food Pantry, the Salvation Army and the food pantry at Victory Baptist Church) received a total of 13,500 pounds of meat from about 270 deer, enough to provide 54,000 quarter-pound servings.
In Patrick County, 28 deer were processed in 2008, which provided 1,400 pounds of meat, enough for 5,600 quarter-pound servings.
“It’s a lifesaver, not just for our agency, but the people we serve,” said Travis Adkins, assistant executive director of the Community Storehouse in Martinsville.
He estimated that the storehouse provides venison to a total of 4,000 to 5,000 people, usually from fall until January, through the program. He added that he believes many of them would not be able to afford meat otherwise.
The Salvation Army of Martinsville and Henry County provides meat for more than 5,000 people a year in the county and city through Hunters for the Hungry, estimated Major Orville Chambless.
The Hunters for the Hungry program helps the food bank at Victory International Ministries in Fieldale “enormously,” said Al Allsbrook, director. About 200 families, or a total of 800 to 1,000 people, receive deer meat each week from late fall through early winter, he estimated.
Like the others, Allsbrook said he believes many people would go without meat if not for the venison.
“We couldn’t make it without them,” Sharon Mills, site director of the Henry County Food Pantry, said of the Hunters for the Hungry program.
Last November and December, the pantry received a total of 1,365 pounds of venison, which helped feed a total of about 2,700 people, she said. The pantry, which mostly involves three churches and operates at 3289 Riverside Drive, Bassett, gives out the meat in 2-pound allotments.
“I wish the hunters could see the appreciation” on the faces of people receiving the venison, Mills added. “So many are elderly and unable to hunt for themselves.”
Agencies generally distribute the venison in small quantities, Newell-Furniss said.
The intent is not to fill a family’s freezer with deer meat but to provide even a small amount of meat that a family can stretch to “supplement” its diet, she said.
Ilene Pittis, senior Virginia Initiative for Employment Not Welfare worker with the Patrick County Department of Social Services, said, “We take applications for anyone who wants the venison.”
The department distributes processed deer meat to a total of about 60 to 80 families, she said. “It’s a wonderful program. We try to encourage the hunters to give as much as they can,” Pittis said.
Newell-Furniss said the Hunters for the Hungry program helps control the abundant deer population in Virginia as well as provides meat for needy people. That is especially important in this area with its high unemployment, she said.
Meat from deer killed in this area is distributed in this area, Newell-Furniss added.
According to VHWC’s Web site, in 2008 in Virginia, deer hunters donated 381,151 pounds of meat, enough for 1.52 million quarter-pound servings. Since the Hunters for the Hungry program started in Virginia in 2001, more than 3.7 million pounds of venison have been distributed, according to online sources.
Newell-Furniss said that “hunters are generous, generous, generous” in donating deer.
However, she said, their charity is limited by the amount of money that is donated by the public for such things as professional processing of the meat. As a result, some hunters who wish to donate deer may have to be turned away, she said.
Numerous area churches, the Henry County Farm Bureau, the local chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation and Ruritan clubs in the district are among the contributors to the Hunters for the Hungry program, Newell-Furniss said.
Ray Martin Sr. of the Fontaine Ruritan Club said all 40 Ruritan clubs in the four-county district (Henry, Patrick, Pittsylvania and Halifax counties) have contributed to Hunters for the Hungry for years. A company in Richmond matches every dollar that a Ruritan Club in Virginia contributes, he said.
Newell-Furniss’ records show that Rolling Meadows Custom Meats on the Henry County-Franklin County line processed 300 to 350 deer last year, but part of the meat was distributed in other counties, Danville and Rocky Mount, she said.
Tim Belcher, owner and operator of Rolling Meadows Custom Meats, said one deer usually produces from 25 to 45 pounds of meat after processing.
Newell-Furniss’ records show that Pinecrest Meats processed 28 deer last year, she said.
Wood’s Cold Storage north of Stuart serves as a cooling station for the Hunters for the Hungry program, where deer are stored until a processor can pick them up. It handles 30 to 50 deer a year, John Wood of the company estimated.
According to Belcher and Wood, the hunter has to field dress, or gut, the deer and bring it in for processing or cold storage the same day it is killed.
To contact Hunters for the Hungry, write P.O. Box 304, Big Island, Va. 24526 or call 1-800-352-4868. |
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