FORT WAYNE, Ind. - About a quarter of a million meals of venison will help feed the hungry throughout Indiana if the number of deer donated to the cause by hunters meets this year’s goal.

In 2011, Hoosiers Feeding Hungry near Fort Wayne started the program where hunters statewide can take a deer to a local meat processor involved in the effort. 

The 1- and 2-pound packages of venison coming out of the butcher shop are given to local food pantries and soup kitchens.

“All of the meat stays in the community in which it’s donated,” said Deb Treesh, executive director of Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry. Her organization pays the meat processing costs, which last year totaled more than $64,000.

Treesh said the effort has a measurable impact because just one deer, on average, provides up to 200 meals.

The drive has grown from just five donated deer, initially, to more than 770 last year from more hunters and butchers learning about the program.

Treesh said this year’s goal is 1,200 deer, which would yield about 60,000 pounds of meat.

She said the goal was set high to meet a growing need for food assistance, largely from higher meat prices caused by inflation and the federal government recently scaling back on the amount of commodities it gives to food pantries.

In Indiana, about 800,000 residents are struggling to have enough to eat and 47 percent of those individuals, based on their income, do not qualify for food stamps, said Katie DeForest, fund development director at the organization.

“People are having a harder time stretching their budgets to make ends meet,” she said.

Treesh said about a third of the revenue for the organization comes from an annual fund raiser in September. Other sources of dollars for the group include grants.

“The more meat we need, the more finances we need,” she said.

The donated meat comes mostly from deer harvested in reduction zones or areas where populations need thinning and during traditional hunting seasons.

Deer started to be taken from reduction zones like the Indiana Dunes in mid-September.

Archery season in Indiana runs from Oct. 1 to January 1, while the firearms and muzzleloader seasons each last for about two weeks in November and December.

Treesh said she doesn’t know how many deer have been donated this year but the Indiana Department of Natural Resources is helping with a more aggressive campaign to spread the word to further drive up giving.

She said hunters can even donate just a few pounds of venison from a deer or whatever might be left in their freezers to contribute to the cause.

Hunters can also give strictly money.

“If they don’t want to give up their deer, I get it. I respect that. They can even donate financially. Every dollar makes a difference,” Treesh said.

Another 100 or so deer were donated to the cause last year through the DuBois County Sportsman’s Club, which partners with Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry in the effort.

Conservation Officer Tyler Brock said DNR, mostly through e-mails and social media, encourages hunters to donate and puts them in touch with participating meat processors in their area.

Brock said hunters can take as many as 10 deer in state designated reduction zones during the season.

“If a hunter has a surplus of deer on their property that they’re trying to manage and they need to take more deer than what their family is going to eat, this gives them an opportunity to donate that deer and put it to good use,” he said.

Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry also accepts donations of livestock in a program that began in 2012. Last year, Treesh said Indiana farmers, along with 4-H youth, contributed well over 200,000 pounds of meat from animals like beef cows, hogs, lambs and goats.