I’d like to think we deer hunters are a generous lot.

And in recent years, there have been a variety of locally administered programs around the state that allow successful hunters to donate their deer to food shelves.

However with a few exceptions, hunters or the butchering facility accepting the deer frequently were the ones expected to foot the bill for processing the donated animals.

As a result, it is estimated that only a few hundred animals actually made it to state food shelves.

Things are different this year. Thanks to an appropriation last year by the Legislature of $160,000 and a $5 increase in nonresident deer licenses, $280,000 will be available to fund the processing of donated deer destined for state food shelves.

More than 60 of the state’s 225 registered deer processors have agreed to participate in the program that is being administered by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

(A complete list of processors is available online at: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/deer/donation/index.html.)

At an estimated cost of $70 per deer, the fund should cover the cost of processing 4,000 deer. By any measure, that translates to a significant amount of wholesome, high quality meat destined for the state’s needy.

But another provision of this year’s venison program allows hunters inclined to keep their deer but still wanting to make a contribution to donate $1, $3, or $5 to the food shelf cause when they purchase their deer license at electronic license stations.

You didn’t know that?

Neither did I. And presumably, neither did the pleasant college-aged girl behind the counter of the local sporting goods store who sold me mine way back in August.

The problem, says Lou Cornicelli, the DNR’s big game coordinator, is that folks at many of the ELS outlets aren’t asking if hunters would like to participate.

“We sent out letters asking them to,” Cornicelli said. “ They are supposed to but they aren’t asking.”

As a result, most hunters are unaware that they can participate in the venison for charity program without actually donating their own deer.

He said that at the license center at DNR headquarters in St. Paul where personnel are informing license applicants about the donation provision, participation has been very good.

There are some 1,800 electronic licensing agents throughout the state of Minnesota ranging from convenience stores to gas stations to sporting goods stores.

Understandably, a kid behind the counter of a gas station might not be informed enough to ask the right questions, but at sporting goods stores where license sales go hand-in-glove with the other things they sell, it is a bit more puzzling.

Most of the donated deer probably will be the result of deer hunters taking multiple deer in management and intensive harvest zones.

It would be fair to assume that elsewhere in the state, in lottery areas where hunters are limited to taking only one deer, folks will be less inclined to donate their hard-earned venison.

The cash donation provision at least lets them participate in the charity effort and still enjoy the fruits of the hunt.

The opening of the 2007 Minnesota Firearms Deer Season is next Saturday and the DNR suggests hunters avoid the last minute rush and buy their licenses early.

While you’re at it, consider making a small donation.

And if you’ve already bought your license, Cornicelli said a code can be entered at ELS terminals that will permit hunters who already have purchased their licenses still to make a donation.

The line starts behind me.



John Cross is a Free Press staff writer. Contact him at 344-6376 or by e-mail at jcross@mankatofreepress.com.