MORAN — After years of expressed interest, Seth Bolling of Bolling’s Moran Locker is joining the Kansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry (KSHFH) program.
The organization partners hunters and local butchers to provide meat for local food banks and charities.
“I’ve wanted to be a part of this for several years,” Bolling said.
Through the program, a hunter pays $100 towards processing costs of a deer with the organization picking up the rest of the expenses.
According to Bolling, it’s a win/win. Sometimes, deer aren’t picked up after they’ve been processed.
“One year, we had 50 left behind,” he said. “We ended up donating the meat to the Iola food pantry.” Though that large amount isn’t common, the market always expects some won’t be picked up.
“We had four left over this past year,” he added.
Through the partnership with KSHFH, Moran Locker will donate its processed venison to Beacon Food Pantry in Fort Scott.
Bolling notes the locker will accept donations through the second season of deer hunting. “Nobody has brought any in to donate so far,” he said. “We’re hoping by getting the word out, we’ll see that change.”
JUST ONE deer can feed nearly 200 people, according to KSHFH. Since its beginning in 2001, the organization and Kansas hunters have donated more than 12,000 deer to provide nearly 3 million meals. That translates to roughly 100,000 meals a year across the state.
Contributions from hunters, businesses, churches, sporting clubs, organizations and other foundations help to fund the KSHFH.
The primary expense for the organization is being able to pay the participating butchers to process, package and freeze the donated venison for distribution by local food pantries.
Volunteers help to organize and coordinate the efforts in communities across the state by helping with fundraising, promotional gatherings, meat donation, meat distribution and much more.
An estimated 25 meat lockers across the state have partnered with KSHFH.
Archery season for deer hunting is currently underway and will go through Dec. 31.
