East Texas hunters can give back to community through ‘Hunters for the Hungry’ program

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - With deer hunting season beginning as soon as November 4, The East Texas Food Bank is also starting up their ‘Hunters for the Hungry’ program where East Texas hunters give back to their community by donating their kill.

“Throughout East Texas, one in seven individuals is hungry. One in seven individuals needs support and needs help. And one in seven individuals is looking for support like what is given through the Hunters for the Hungry Program.” said East Texas Food Bank Chief Impact Officer, Kim Morris.

The way it works is hunters will donate legally tagged, field-dressed whitetail or mule deer to a local participating meat processor at no cost. Due to state and federal health regulations, Hunters for the Hungry is not able to accept donations of feral hog.

“If you have extra, if you’ve made a kill that you’re not going to be able to consume with your family, consider donating that to a processor who will then in turn donate that to the food bank.” said Morris.

The program has been around for several years and has provided over 10 million servings of venison to Texans in need. And this year, the East Texas Food Bank is in need of additional wild game processors to participate.

“New processors to serve with this Hunters for the Hungry program would allow us to increase the amount of deer that we could process and amount of meat we could put into our network.”

There are currently four participating processors in East Texas. One of those is TFB Country Store and Processing in Troup.

TFB Country Store and Processing Vice President, Ty Lindsey said, “Being in a smaller type community that’s like family and knowing that there’s people out there who need that, this is a good way for hunters to enjoy what they want to do and do help put food on someone else’s table at the same time.”

The store has partnered with the food bank for three years now. and they are hopeful about this year’s donation.

“Total deer process this year will probably be 22-2,300. And of that, would like to donate 200 to 300 deer to East Texas Food Bank.”

The program does not accept deer that has been processed by hunters themselves. It has to go through the participating processors.

For more information on the East Texas Food Bank’s Hunters for the Hungry program, participating processors, or how you can donate and become a processor, click here.

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