Mike Wolf, of Johnstown, a forestry educator with the Penn State Extension and Cambria County's Hunters Sharing the Harvest program coordinator, with the deer he donated to needy families.

By Caitlin Cleary
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette There is a different kind of food chain at work today in Pennsylvania's forestlands, one that is being applied, with lean efficiency, to the enduring human problems of poverty and hunger.

A deer, foraging for seedlings in an overbrowsed forest, might come to several ends. It might waste away from starvation or disease, a victim of its own overpopulation. Or it could rendezvous with the grillwork of an oncoming motor vehicle along the state's busy highways.

But that deer might also be dispatched by a socially conscious hunter holding an extra deer tag who will then haul his quarry to an equally socially conscious butcher working with the statewide program, Hunters Sharing the Harvest.

The butcher takes a hit on his normal processing fee, to which the hunter generously chips in $15, and the deer -- now ground-up, quality-inspected and neatly encased in 1-pound packages -- arrives at food banks and soup kitchens that are delighted to add to their inventory such a lean and high-protein commodity.

The deer makes its final appearance in the food boxes and chili recipes and Sloppy Joe sandwiches that will fill, at least for a while, the empty stomachs of needy Pennsylvania families.

"It is a win-win situation for everybody," said Dr. Bill Choby, Hunters Sharing the Harvest coordinator for Western Pennsylvania.

Hunters Sharing the Harvest began in 1991, and has grown to include a huge network of volunteers.

Last year, the program directed more than 80,000 pounds of venison to food banks and soup kitchens, big and small, across the state. In 2005, the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank received 15,073 pounds of it. The Miners Community Food Pantry in tiny Nanty Glo, Cambria County, got about 50 pounds, or one deer's worth.

"We're in a more rural area, and it goes really fast here," said Janet Reese, director of the food pantry, which serves about 300 families per month in Jackson, East Taylor and Blacklick townships.

For needy families, the deer meat is highly sought-after, said Dr. Choby, a lifelong hunter and one of the program's earliest supporters.

"When word gets around that venison is available, the people line up for it, they love it," he said.

For hunters, there is the satisfaction of being part of a mutually beneficial proposition: helping to control the deer population -- for the biodiversity of the forests, the safety of humans and the health of the deer themselves -- as well as feeding poor families within their own communities.

Butchers also see a benefit, getting their businesses listed with the program, which is linked to the Pennsylvania Game Commission Web site. The program is publicized in the magazine that is sent out with every hunter's license.

Most hunters donate the proceeds of their second or third deer tag.

"It's the extra deer that really makes the program spin right," said Mike Wolf, program coordinator for Cambria County and a forestry educator with Penn State Extension. "My family, we can't eat more than two deer a year."

Mr. Wolf said that in certain areas of the state, the deer are so abundant that forest managers are unable to regrow their forests.

"With the overabundance of deer in our woodlots and on our farms, hunters are playing a big role in controlling the deer population," he said.

Deer control is not officially one of the objectives of Hunters Sharing the Harvest, said Dr. Choby, but in urban and suburban areas like the South Hills and in and around Pittsburgh International Airport, municipalities with deer problems have donated the kills from their "selective reduction" to the program.

"The marvelous thing about the program is that we have a God-given resource that in some cases in very abundant," said Dr. Choby. "Our goal is just to make wise use of this resource, to the benefit of many."

For more information on participating deer processors, food banks and local program coordinators, go to www.sharedeer.org, or call 1-866-474-2141.