FITCHBURG - More than 500 deer shot in the chronic wasting disease (CWD) Zones during the 2007 hunting season were donated by hunters to area food pantries for helping feed needy families in southern Wisconsin, thanks to two community groups, according to the Department of Natural Resources.
The donation program, administered by the Southwest Wisconsin Community Action Program, Dodgeville, and the Community Action Coalition for South Central WI Inc., Madison, with the help of DNR funding, provided about 24,000 pounds of venison for distribution among food pantries serving eight counties.
DNR had run a venison pantry donation program from 2004-2006 as an incentive for hunters to harvest more deer in the CWD Zones, but a reduction in state and federal money caused the state agency to suspend its popular endeavor in 2007.
After announcing the program's suspension last fall, "we soon learned (that) there was quite a bit of interest among community groups, meat processors and pantries to continue offering this service," said the agency's CWD project leader Alan Crossley.
To that end, SWCAP and CACSCW came forward and established collection sites, lined-up meat processors and worked with food pantries to make sure a donation program continued, although at less volume than previous years.
Hunters were charged - and willingly paid - a $20 contribution to help offset venison processing costs and participating butchers were reimbursed up to an additional $30 for each deer processed from the CWD Zones. DNR provided $15,000 each to SWCAP and CACSCW to be used exclusively for reimbursing meat processors.
All donated deer were sampled for CWD and only those which tested negative were processed through the system.
Participating processors were Black Earth Meats, Dick's Meats, Mt. Horeb, Hoesley Meats, New Glarus, Fred's Village Market, Waunakee, Lodi Meat and Sausage Co., Stoddard's, Cottage Grove and River's Edge, Jefferson. Venison was or will be distributed to food pantries in Dane, Grant, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Lafayette, Richland and Sauk Counties.
The donation program, administered by the Southwest Wisconsin Community Action Program, Dodgeville, and the Community Action Coalition for South Central WI Inc., Madison, with the help of DNR funding, provided about 24,000 pounds of venison for distribution among food pantries serving eight counties.
DNR had run a venison pantry donation program from 2004-2006 as an incentive for hunters to harvest more deer in the CWD Zones, but a reduction in state and federal money caused the state agency to suspend its popular endeavor in 2007.
After announcing the program's suspension last fall, "we soon learned (that) there was quite a bit of interest among community groups, meat processors and pantries to continue offering this service," said the agency's CWD project leader Alan Crossley.
To that end, SWCAP and CACSCW came forward and established collection sites, lined-up meat processors and worked with food pantries to make sure a donation program continued, although at less volume than previous years.
Hunters were charged - and willingly paid - a $20 contribution to help offset venison processing costs and participating butchers were reimbursed up to an additional $30 for each deer processed from the CWD Zones. DNR provided $15,000 each to SWCAP and CACSCW to be used exclusively for reimbursing meat processors.
All donated deer were sampled for CWD and only those which tested negative were processed through the system.
Participating processors were Black Earth Meats, Dick's Meats, Mt. Horeb, Hoesley Meats, New Glarus, Fred's Village Market, Waunakee, Lodi Meat and Sausage Co., Stoddard's, Cottage Grove and River's Edge, Jefferson. Venison was or will be distributed to food pantries in Dane, Grant, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Lafayette, Richland and Sauk Counties.
