FRENCH CREEK, W.Va. — West Virginia’s Hunters Helping the Hungry Program will put thousands of pounds of nutritious venison on the tables of needy West Virginians this fall. Those donated deer however come at a cost.
“We do not spend hunting and fishing dollars on the program. That’s not allowed by law,” said Tyler Evans who coordinates the program for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. “So we really do rely heavily on donations.”
This Sunday will mark one of those key fundraising period to foot the bill for processing and transport of the donated meat. “Share the Harvest Sunday” is organized and promoted by the Division of Natural Resources in cooperating with the West Virginia Council of Churches. It’s a fundraising event which has been a staple in recent years to help fund the program.
“All a congregation needs to do is have a desire to participate,” said Evans. “It’s always designated as the first Sunday in November, but theoretically they could do it at any time of the year and we’d be appreciative of any donations.”
The idea of Share the Harvest Sunday is to get every person who is in church on Sunday to donate one dollar. If that happened, the program would be paid for with money to spare.
“It usually comes out to be about $15,000 a year which goes a long way toward supporting the program and that doesn’t include the Governor’s One Shot Hunt which we completed last Saturday,” said Evans of the Share the Harvest Sunday fundraising efforts.
This year the DNR and West Virginia Department of Agriculture have teamed up in an effort to recruit more meat processors to get involved in the program. The lack of those processors in recent years has been one of the few obstacles to expansion. Ac coring to Evans, hunters enjoy the program since it enables them to fill tax they otherwise wouldn’t get to use.
“There are a lot of moving parts that go into making it a success,” he said. “One of the biggest is getting more people involved, whether it’s becoming a participating processor or somebody who killed a deer and can’t use it or already has the freezer full and is willing to donate it..”