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CLEVELAND, Ohio —
Ohio's deer gun season is officially underway. And, If you're into deer hunting, there's a way you can help feed the homeless this holiday season.
A national outreach ministry called FHFH, which stands for "Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry" is helping food banks by donating venison.
That means hunters can donate their deer meat to be processed free of charge, as long as it's dropped off at a licensed facility.
Hall Brothers Meats in Olmsted Falls is one of the participating meat processors. Owner Jerry Hall says there are some regulations hunters must adhere to.
"It has to be a properly hunted, tagged and legal deer. It cannot be roadkill. The deer has to be shot that day, field-dressed and brought into us," said Hall.
Because of a subsidy grant from the Division of Wildlife, hunters do not have to pay the processing fees. Hall says each deer averages about 40 pounds of packaged venison.
"It's a very popular program. There's more and more hunters getting into it as they find out about it," said Hall.
All local donations will be taken to the Cleveland Food Bank where they will be distributed.
"A lot of times we'll get the venison ground up in 1 or 5 pound bags and we'll make that available to our member agencies. We have over 600 member agencies in our area and they're very receptive to receiving it," said Cleveland Food Bank Communications Manager Karen Ponza.
