Hunters donate 18,000 pounds of venison to help feed Georgia's poor

<p>Georgia hunters have donated 733 deer this year to a program that provides thousands of pounds of venison to the Atlanta Community Food Bank for distribution to needy families throughout the state, game officials say.</p><p>Sarah Robertson, a food procurement specialist with the Food Bank, said meat is one of the hardest commodities to obtain and the supply of venison, a nutritious lean meat, enhances the diets of Georgia's poor.</p><p>Each November, hunters participating in the program known as Hunters for the Hungry, deliver some of the deer they kill during hunting season to processing plants around the state. The meat is turned into ground venison.</p><p>This year's donations will provide about 18,000 pounds of venison that will be delivered early next year, officials said. The venison will be shipped to nonprofit agencies that provide food assistance in Georgia.</p><p>"The response of hunters ... to this program is phenomenal," said Dan Forster, director of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources' Wildlife Resources Division, a sponsor of the program.</p><p>Since the kickoff of Hunters for the Hungry in 1993, hunters have donated 6,534 deer, totaling more than 160,000 pounds of venison, officials said. They donated 862 deer last year and a record 911 in 2003.</p><p>The Wildlife Resources Division promotes the annual event, while the Georgia Department of Corrections processes much of the venison using inmate butchers and transports the meat to Atlanta free of charge in refrigerated trucks.</p><p>The program is funded by donations from individual and corporate sponsors who take part in the annual Gov.'s Quail Hunt.</p>