Bringing Elk and Venison to Food Pantries

Hunters in Colorado sometimes wait years to obtain one of a limited number of tags or licenses to hunt certain animals. That’s why Denver-based hunter Ethan Janicki was surprised when he tagged elk and mule deer during Colorado’s rifle season.

Janicki bagged each animal. After filling his refrigerator and freezer with meat and giving it to his family, he donated about 50 pounds of venison to local food pantries last year through Colorado’s version of a national program that connects hunters and butchers with food-insecure families. Service organizations are linked together. Janicki first heard about giving programs in Texas, but he had to work to find them in Colorado.

“Without this project, I would buy an extra refrigerator. There are people who are hungry, and we [hunters] Having this resource,” Janicki said of wild game, adding that it is organic and hormone-free.

There is only one wild game processor in the state, meat cleaver In Denver, donations are accepted. Still, Hunter says more awareness could boost participation at this time food aid needs Continued growth. The donation drive reduces waste for Colorado hunters and ranchers while providing food pantries with local, healthy protein — a resource that is often in short supply.

Over the past three years, Meat Cleaver operations manager Jasilyn Kendall has spearheaded the effort, overseeing the processing and personally transporting more than 3,000 pounds of donated game meat throughout Colorado. Funding comes from Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry (FHFH), a nonprofit Christian charity based in Maryland.

Kendall, who has experienced homelessness and food insecurity herself, said it makes sense to give back to the community.

“People go through periods in their lives where they are unemployed or in trouble,” Kendall said. “It feels good to give back to the community.”

National nonprofits like FHFH and state and local programs raise money to cover the cost of slaughtering donated game meat, which can range from $100 per deer to $700 per bison. Such programs can also help distribute meat to local food pantries and church groups.

“Access to game meat and ground meat is very important for the pantry,” said Fairplay Mayor Frank Just, who helps Kendall distribute donated meat to the South Park Senior Center Food Bank , the bank is Alma, Como, Fairplay, Hassell and Jefferson.

Normally, Juster said, the pantry’s protein is purchased from the Food Bank of the Rockies, but donating the meat means the money can be used for other food. Last fall, Kendall and her husband made two separate trips from Denver to the South Park Food Pantry in two large coolers, each containing about 300 pounds of frozen meat.

Like many other places across the country, Just said his community has seen a significant increase in need as food costs rise.

“Meat goes quickly,” Just said. The food bank is run entirely by volunteers and serves 70 families and more than 170 people one Saturday a month. Just said he hopes to receive more donations from Meat Cleaver, but he knows fall is a busy time of year for Kendall and her staff.

In fact, on a Monday morning in late September, hunters were knocking on the door of the Cleaver Shop before it even opened. It was muzzleloading season, and a group of hunters in pickup trucks who had spent the weekend in the woods were hauling their animals to the loading dock for processing.

A Meat Cleaver longshoreman lifts giant elk and moose legs from a hunter cooler to a metal hook mounted on the loading dock ceiling for weighing. Next to a loading dock, a refrigerated trailer carries a banner that reads “Help us…help those in need,” asking hunters to donate a portion of a deer, elk or livestock to help provide food for people facing food insecurity, and hunters No fees are required.

Kendall started accepting donations a few years ago after reading an FHFH flyer and being encouraged by a meat cleaver owner. Some donations come from hunters who have extra meat because of the unexpected size of the animals. Last year, for example, a hunter in Mississippi brought a 900-pound bison he had killed in Colorado. He flew 700 pounds of meat home and donated 200 pounds to the program through Meat Cleaver.

About 30 hunters each season send animals to Meat Cleaver for processing but do not receive finished packages. Kendall calls these people the “naughty list,” and while Meat Cleaver is legally allowed to sell the meat after 30 days, she donates it to the food pantry. (Interested pantries can contact Meat Cleaver for more information.) Colorado Parks and Wildlife occasionally donates wild game to Meat Cleaver.

“The majority of donations from participating butchers are made during hunting season, so we are now entering the most active time of year in most places,” said FHFH Executive Director Josh Wilson.

While Meat Cleaver is currently the only participating butcher in Colorado, Wilson said they have had butchers from Grand Junction in the past and are open to adding processors in other areas of the state, especially if they can help with fundraising and promotions. FHFH pays for meat processing but relies on raising funds in the 15 participating states.

Peter Churchbourne, executive director of the NRA’s Hunter Leadership Forum, said that like the FHFH, most wildlife donation programs are run by volunteers and only a few are funded by state wildlife agencies of. Churchburn said Colorado’s program is smaller than in states like Pennsylvania and Virginia, which have deeper pockets and excess wildlife such as white-tailed deer.

“The difficulty in obtaining labels may explain why these programs may not exist in Western states,” Janicki said. For example, a Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman said there are waiting lists and lifetime restrictions for hunting bull moose tags, as well as other restrictions for hunting bighorn sheep and mountain goats.

In addition to the hunter’s game, the cleaver also processed a bull donated last year by Colorado rancher Myron Smith.

“I haven’t heard of anyone else doing this, and I’ve been wanting to donate for a long time,” Smith said. His bull needed to be put out. It produced more than 500 pounds of meat and cost $575 to process. Kendall said larger bulls can cost as much as $900 to $1,200 to process.

“It helped in two ways. I got rid of a problem bull and fed some people who needed it,” Smith said. He added that he was interested in donating another one.

Last year, the food pantry at New Apostolic Church in Arvada received three donations of about 200 pounds of meat, including venison, bison, elk and beef, from Meat Cleaver. Sharon Wilson, the food pantry’s coordinator, said she had never heard of the program until Kendall called her. The food pantry is open to 25-30 families every Wednesday morning, and Wilson said they’re excited to take some wild game home.

“They were so excited about the bison. The sausage disappeared in the blink of an eye,” Wilson said. Food pantries often have other meats available, but donations from Meat Cleaver seem to be the most popular choice.

Churchburn said that for many hunters, the donation program is in the spirit of utilizing every part of the game. Janicki liked that it was a non-governmental program and everyone seemed to win. But he acknowledged that he had to go to great lengths to find a donor project in Colorado, and it would still take extra effort to make that happen.

“Maybe there are other hunters like me who are luckier than they expected and have extra meat to donate, but they don’t even realize it’s an option,” Janicki said.