Deer hunters are once again generous
By MARY ANN GREIER, Salem News staff writerLISBON - Low-income families in Columbiana County will again benefit from the generosity of hunters who donate their deer to two local food pantries.
During the last deer season, the hunt provided 2,770 packages of venison which ended up on the tables of 1,160 county families consisting of 3,440 people, supplementing the stretched resources of the pantries operated by the Community Action Agency and Department of Job and Family Services.
CAA Executive Director Carol Bretz recently stressed the importance of getting the word out to hunters about the opportunity to donate. Last year, they donated 80 deer.
This is the third year for the program which is a joint effort of the Columbiana County Federation of Conservation Clubs, the county DJFS, the CAA and the Northeast Chapter of Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry. The Ohio Division of Wildlife provided a grant to the national chapter of FHFH, enabling any Ohio chapter to apply for matching funds for any money raised to process the deer at no cost to hunters, a press release said.
Hunters can't donate deer they've butchered themselves. The program requires the deer processing be done by a meat processing facility approved by the Ohio Department of Agriculture. The Northeast Chapter of FHFH pays the processing fee for each deer.
Meat processors who can take deer for the program include:
Leetonia IGA, 30 Hazel St., Leetonia, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday or 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, 330-427-6143.
Horst Packing, 3535 Renkenberger Road, Columbiana, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday or one hour on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., closed Sunday, 330-482-2997.
Winona Frozen Foods, 4955 Whinnery Road, Winona, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday or 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday, 330-222-1112.
Gateway Farm & Freezer, 1522 Mt. Jackson Road, Enon Valley, Pa., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday or 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday, 724-667-6501.
Bow season in Ohio started on Sept. 27, with gun season scheduled to begin Dec. 1.
In the press release, DJFS Director Eileen Dray-Bardon commented that "deer are a renewable resource and an excellent source of protein. The funds we save because of the donated deer can be used for other types of emergency assistance."
According to the statistics from last year's program from Nov. 1, 2007 through Oct. 20 this year, CAA gave out 1,338 pounds of venison to 271 families, with each family receiving 2 to 4 pounds of the meat depending on how many members were in the household. The majority of families came from the Lisbon area, followed by East Liverpool, Salem, Wellsville, East Palestine, Salineville and New Waterford. A handful of families came from Rogers, Hanoverton, Leetonia and Columbiana.
CAA also distributed packages of venison to the Southern Community Center, Fleming House and Applegrove Homes.
DJFS distributed 1,432 packages of venison to 889 households through its pantry. East Liverpool topped the list of communities where recipients lived, followed by Lisbon, Rogers, Salem, East Palestine, New Waterford, Wellsville, Columbiana, Salineville, Leetonia and Hanoverton.
