A new program in northern Michigan is aiming to stock food pantry shelves with more venison this hunting season. The initiative covers hunters’ processing fees, allowing them to donate deer meat at no cost.
What: Hunters for Hope
Where: The Buckley Food Pantry at 205 E Wexford Ave, Buckley, MI
Contact: (231) 633-4720 or foodpantry@thetabchurch.com
At TC Butchering, just north of Lake Ann in a large metal barn, owner Terry Conger pointed to the program’s latest donation.
“We got the first deer a couple days ago,” Conger said, “and we now have a second deer right here. That one just came in today from the same gentleman.”
The deer hangs from a hook-and-rail system used to pull carcasses into the back of the shop. Soon, it will be headed to the Buckley Food Pantry through a new program called Hunters for Hope.
“This is coming from people's neighbors,” Conger said.
The program is just a week old after a few hunters in Buckley came up with the idea during a men’s Bible study at The Tabernacle church.
The state of Michigan operates its own venison donation initiative — the Hunters Feeding Michigan program — which partners with processors across the state. Hunters for Hope is separate from that system.
In the back of the shop, the rail system brings skinned deer through double doors to be cut.
“This is where the magic happens,” Conger said.
Nearby, Conger’s friend and employee Tom Lance trimmed meat at the table. His knife moved quickly down the spine, removing the nearly two-foot-long cut.
Inside the shop, a wall of antlers greets visitors — around thirty pieces hanging together. Many of the antlers are small, asymmetrical, or broken — trophies that hunters weren’t interested in displaying at home.
“This is the wall of shame,” Conger said. “Horns are nice, don't get me wrong. But, I'm after the deer, the meat.”
The Buckley Food Pantry says stocking enough protein for around 70 families a week can be a challenge. On a good week, they might get twenty pounds of meat. A single deer can provide sixty to seventy pounds.
To make donations possible, the Tabernacle church worked out a lower processing fee with TC Butchering and now covers the full cost for all donated deer.
“The difference between people on SNAP and the people that are not,” Lance said, “is we're just a little bit luckier."
The Hunters for Hope program will accept deer donations throughout the hunting season.
Hunters who want to donate — and maybe add a rack to the “wall of shame” — can contact Hunters for Hope at (231) 633-4720.
