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| Wildlife Management |
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| GONetwork Announces Sportsman's Pantry |
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| By Steve Burch |
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Originally published in the August 2008 issue of GON
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Sportsman’s Pantry will operate statewide, with deer processors you already know and trust.
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WRD developed Georgia’s current statewide deer-management plan in 2004. In gathering responses from sportsmen about that plan, charitable deer donation became a major issue.
The state and its surrogate have failed to address that issue. GONetwork has crafted a plan that will address the problem for sportsmen and for our deer.
Our plan — Sportsman’s Pantry — will operate statewide, with deer processors you already know and trust. While we are just starting, we expect to have 25 processors on board by opening day of gun season, and are working toward 100 participating processors by Thanksgiving.
Soon, you may finally have a processor close enough to you so you can participate in the deer donation process. These participating processors will accept donated, field-dressed deer, process them, and have a local food-bank affiliate pick up the venison. GONetwork believes an aggressive program should be developed and expanded to cover all Georgia.
That is the primary purpose of the GONetwork Sportsman’s Pantry progam.
The Sportsman’s Pantry will work toward two key goals.
The first goal is to permit the sportsman to employ sound management practices without wasting game or fish or penalizing the sportsman. We achieve this goal by working with deer processors across the state who will accept donated, field-dressed deer for processing.
Every deer processor who runs a clean operation and would like to participate in GONetwork’s Sportsman’s Pantry program will be considered.
Our goal is to provide sportsmen with deer processors convenient to sportsmen and well-funded enough to allow them to donate deer andmanage their herds appropriately.
Sportsman’s Pantry plans to double the current donation rate of about 23,000 pounds of venison the state is collecting now. But when you look at the history of their progam, doubling up doesn’t appear to be that hard.
WRD’s 2004 statewide plan called for hunters to harvest more deer per hunter. (You may also recall they wanted to remove any limit on shooting does. Sportsmen shouted down that plan.)
Sportsmen know that in some areas, more deer may need to be taken. However, we are not keen on taking a deer unless it will be put to good use.
Since most hunters already were taking all the deer they wanted each year, sportsmen told WRD that more places to donate venison would be required. This was one of the major responses from sportsmen gathered by WRD during meetings around the state in 2005.
GONetwork understands the dilemma in which we, Georgia’s sportsmen, find ourselves. Hunters know when we need to harvest more deer than we have been taking from a tract of land, and we know when the harvest is about right. But even in situations where there may be a need to take more deer from a tract, sportsmen won’t shoot a deer and permit it to go to waste. So if they shoot it, they have to take care of it.
This dilemma can exact both a physical and financial toll on sportsmen who take a deer they don’t really need, field-dress it, wrestle it out of the woods, pay to have the deer processed, and then donate it to charity. Consequently, many sportsmen don’t take deer they can’t afford to process.
Yet there is a toll on the land if it becomes over-populated with deer.
In the years since those hearings around the state, little progress has been made in deer donation sites. Georgia’s state-approved program is puny by any standard. This program — Hunters for the Hungry — is owned by the Georgia Wildlife Federation/Camo Coalition. The program began in 1993 and, according to its owner — GWF President Jerry McCollum — has been intentionally kept small.
Georgia’s WRD supports this program exclusively.
Last year, Georgia WRD and the GWF celebrated the donation of their 1 millionth meal (there are five meals per pound of donated venison). So, they celebrated the donation of 200,000 pounds of venison in the past 15 seasons. They expressed great pride in the accomplishment. And 1 million meals is certainly an accomplishment.
However, Georgia’s program compares poorly with other states.
Alabama’s Hunters Helping the Hungry is about double Georgia’s program. It began in 1999, and last year it exceeded 380,000 pounds of donated venison.
Kentucky served its 2 millionth donated venison meal in 2006.
Virginia began its program in 1991 and, last year, while Georgia was celebrating serving 1 million meals, Virginia was celebrating serving 10.5 million meals.
Georgia has been successful in its plan to keep its program small.
In this year’s version of the GWF/WRD Hunters for the Hungry program, there are 10 participating deer processors around the state, up from six last year.
Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi River and has the largest deer herd in the south. There are 159 counties in Georgia. Operating since 1993, Georgia’s Hunters for the Hungry program has only 10 participating deer processors.
GONetwork believes sportsmen deserve better.
Under our program, sportsmen will donate venison and processors will provide that venison to approved food distribution agencies as close as possible to the community in which the deer was donated.
If you know of a good cooler, please inform them of GONetwork’s Sportsman’s Pantry program and have them contact me; the best way is by email at <steve@georgiaoutdoornetwork.org>.
There are rules that govern those participating deer processors. The first rule is that these processors also donate to the program. Participating processors are making donations in labor by agreeing to process donated deer for free, up to a certain amount. That amount is one pound of venison this year for each deer processed last year. If a processor took in 1,000 deer last year, then he agrees to process the first 1,000 pounds of donated venison for free this year. (They are not taking any venison from any hunter’s deer.)
There are also rules that govern sportsmen wishing to donate a deer. It must be field-dressed or you pay the processor to field-dress it. The field-dressed deer must weigh at least 60 pounds. If less than 60 pounds, the sportsmen will pay the processor $1 per pound for each pound under 60 pounds.
All rules are available on the Sportsman’s Pantry website <www.sportsmanspantry.org>.
As important as this program with deer processors is, it is not the sum of the Sportsman’s Pantry.
Coming August 8-10 is GON’s Outdoor Blast in Macon. Kids 12 and under get in free, but the admission price for adults is $4 each.
However, GON is giving a $2-off coupon to anyone who donates a can of meat to GONetwork’s Sportsman’s Pantry truck. It will be sitting near the ticket window at the Centreplex in Macon.
If you want to save $2 off the price of admission to the Outdoor Blast, bring a can of tuna, salmon, corned beef, or ham with you to the show in Macon. Meat protein is the hardest thing for food banks to get. That is why donated venison means so much to their programs, and that is why GON is giving $2 off in support of GONetwork’s Sportsman’s Pantry.
If you forget to bring a can, you can still get the $2-off coupon by donating $2 to the Sportsman’s Pantry. The cash will be used to cover the processing costs of our deer.
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