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February 16, 2012

Venison program distributes 2,000 pounds of beef to area

BY SHIRLEY O’SHEA

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Two thousand pounds of ground beef were distributed Tuesday by the Venison Donation Program of Delaware and Otsego Counties to help feed local families in need, and demand is growing, according to program officials.

On Jan. 3, the program distributed 819 pounds of venison, the program Treasurer Ron Martini of Oneonta said Tuesday. In 2011, the program donated about 4½ tons of meat for distribution to hungry families, he said.

Martini said he expects the program will give another four tons of meat this year, depending upon the price of beef, resulting in a total increase of meat distributions of 1½ tons from last year.

For 11 years, the Venison Donation Program has donated venison received from area hunters and ground beef purchased with funds raised at an annual banquet organized by a committee of program members, according to Martini.

“We still have over $17,500 of funds to distribute this year. We’ll spend all of that on ground beef ... until we run out of money,” Martini said.

The venison and ground beef are distributed to food banks and pantries operated by Delaware Opportunities and Opportunities for Otsego, according to Martini.

The program is an outreach of the Conservation Alliance of New York, a not-for-profit organization that advocates for outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen in New York state, according to CANY’s web site. According to Martini, venison is donated by hunters who have taken deer that they do not need, or by law enforcement officials who have confiscated illegally taken deer.

The program is “open to the hunting public,” Martini said.

Hunters take the deer to designated processors, who grind and package the meat, and after a series of notifications, the meat is picked up by the food banks, according to a memo prepared by Al Bowers, chairman of the Venison Donation Program.

“We’re all hunters, but that’s the least important requisite for being on the committee,” Bowers of Oneonta said Tuesday.

“We work so hard together because we are concerned about feeding our neighbors,” Bowers said. “There’s more need than there was 12 years ago,” when the program began, he said.

“In the 21st century, in the greatest country in the world, we have to deal with that,” Bowers said.

Rick Gravelin of Oneonta has participated in the program as a sponsor and on its committee from its inception in the early 2000s, he said Tuesday.

“This year, not only are we going to have our annual banquet, we are going to start our first annual golf tournament” to raise money for the program, Gravelin said.

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