It's deer hunting season, and that means some lucky hunters will bring home venison. That's an opportunity to donate some of your extras to local food banks.

Missy Orge, director of outreach for Food Gatherers, writes:

Food Gatherers would LOVE venison that folks want to donate.  There are a few
requirements — the venison would need to be professionally processed by a
licensed processor, and must be labeled with the processor information and date. It should be frozen when we receive it.  For more information, including contact info for preferred local processors, please call or email John Reed at john@foodgatherers.org, or call 734-761-2796.

Michigan Sportsmen Against Hunger is a statewide program that coordinates donations of deer meat to food banks statewide. Participating processors accept donations of ground venison, so that you can conveniently donate a portion of your harvest at the time that the meat is processed. If you want to donate an entire deer, a participating processor will take it at no cost. Those donations will go to the food bank in the processor's local area.

This is an abbreviated list of butchers participating in the Michigan Sportsmen Against Hunger program near Ann Arbor. There are no facilities listed in Washtenaw County. The full list of participating processors shows butchers throughout the state who are part of the program.

• Beef Barn, 3095 Cooper St, Jackson MI, in Jackson County, about 40 miles west of Ann Arbor. Its Facebook page reports that it processed 128 deer on Tuesday.
• Merindorf Meats, 2289 West Barnes Road, Mason, in Ingham County, about 60 miles north and west of Ann Arbor. Cost is $85.00 per deer.
• J N S Market, 19240 Ecorse Road, in Allen Park about 30 miles east of Ann Arbor.

Links

• The Michigan Sportsmen Against Hunger home page gives details of the program.
• The Michigan DNR has more information about program donations of deer meat.

Edward Vielmetti writes for AnnArbor.com. Contact him at edwardvielmetti@annarbor.com.