CLEARFIELD COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) — The 2022 Pennsylvania rifle hunting season begins Saturday, November 27 and in Woodland, a butcher is taking deer and donating the meat to those in need.
According to Hunters Sharing The Harvest one deer can provide up to 200 meals.
The Country Butcher was able to donate 634 pounds of meat through this organization just in the last year alone.
“I originally started doing it just inhouse and we ate all the costs ourselves and then the program approached us knowing the amount of deer we process in a year’s time and they said they would reimburse us for it so I mean we help people all year long, and we donate meat, Christmas time we donate upwards of $10,000 worth of meat,” Jason Gill, Owner of Country Butcher said.
The Country Butcher takes both deer and elk. The process of donating your animal is easy.
“Hunters that don’t want to eat the meat or get enough tags they will not fill their freezers, they can drop it off. They pay nothing it’s totally covered, the cost is totally covered so then we process the deer and we donate to local food banks, church organizations that have a list of people that can use it,” Gill said.
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You can donate more than just during rifle season as well.
“Anytime a deer is legally taken so if it’s red tag season which is through the summer and early fall on a farm that has red tags we can do it, regular deer season, rifle season, archery season, late muzzleloader season which is through January so anytime that a deer can be legally taken,” Gill said.
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Jason expects to process over 700 total deer over the next two weeks and hopes that they can donate more than last year.