COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ed Beeler, a grain farmer, knows that deer are a problem. He has had portions of his fields mowed down by them. The population is out of hand, he said. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ (ODNR) Division of Wildlife Field to Foodbank program may help resolve that problem.

This is the second year for the Field to Foodbank program. It is a combination of wildlife management, second-chance workforce training, and hunger relief. Last year, Ohio hunters donated 182 deer, providing more than 36,400 servings of protein for families across the state.

“Deer, especially in many portions of Ohio, are extremely overpopulated,” said Lindsey Krusling, Division of Wildlife communications specialist. “Hunting is one of the main deer-management tools that we use. Encouraging people to hunt more will reduce those herd numbers, especially in areas where farmers might be having issues with deer grazing on their crops.

“We want to find a way to help move the harvesting of antlerless deer and the harvesting of more deer,” Krusling said. “They can hunt more, and if they don’t have room for more deer, they can donate it. We will cover the processing fee, and it will be sent to those Ohioans in need.”

Hunters are encouraged to harvest an extra deer and donate the field-dressed deer at designated drop-off sites on specific dates. Division of Wildlife staff transport donated deer to Ohio Penal Industry’s (OPI) processing facility at Pickaway Correctional Institute in their Field to Foodbank trailers. These are trailers where they can store the deer safely at the donation sites and then transport them to OPI for processing.

OPI’s meat processing facility at Pickaway Correctional provides vocational training and work experience to incarcerated individuals. They get job training for when they are released.

The venison is processed and packaged there and distributed to the Ohio Association of Foodbanks. They distribute it to local food banks, based on need, prioritizing those that are near the donation site.

In 2005, the OPI built a meat processing plant to process beef and pork from the prison farms, said Ann King, OPI chief. Then, in 2014, the governor and the then-OPI director closed the farms. So OPI has continued to operate the meat processing plant by finding private industry opportunities.

“Any citizen can come in and make use of our meat plant,” King said. “They just call to make an appointment; we’re self-sufficient, part of the Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. We do not get any tax dollars, so it is important for us to make sure that the operations that we have in place have enough revenue to keep them open.”

The DNR asked OPI about processing the deer, King said. They have processed deer in the past, but just a couple at a time. This was an opportunity to do a large number.

The facility is USDA-inspected, so King had to talk to the USDA representatives to make sure it was approved. Wild and domestic animals cannot be processed in the same facility on the same day.

“Our side of this is, it is a dying art,” King said. “There are not a lot of meat processors out there anymore. Every time we considered closing our facility, it always came up that it is a valuable tool for these incarcerated people to learn. We have had several released from the program who have gotten positions at meat packers, and they are going in at a higher pay rate because they have skills that others don’t have.”

They process the meat into deer burger, and it is donated by DNR to the appropriate food bank. The food banks are glad to have it.

“The need we have been seeing in our communities has been astronomical,” said Carrie Harshbarger, food supply chain senior director with the Ohio Association of Foodbanks. “We have essentially doubled the amount of pantry visits that we see since 2019, and with that we have not seen the doubling of food.”

The Ohio Association of Foodbanks represents Ohio’s 12 Feeding America foodbanks and their 3,600-member hunger relief programs, serving food insecure Ohioans in all of Ohio’s 88 counties.

“The venison is primarily being distributed as ground venison to families,” Harshbarger said. “This program has been a win-win for us. We have been blessed with this partnership with ODNR and Division of Wildlife.”

Any deer that are caught in the disease surveillance areas are tested before they are processed, Krusling said. Diseased deer are properly disposed of. People still need to purchase permits, and deer must be properly tagged and game checked.

The donation openings after Thanksgiving are:

Nov. 30, Dec. 1, 5, 6, 19 and 20, from 12 p.m. until 8 p.m.

For a list of donation sites, visit ohiodnr.gov/donatevenison.

Hunters are encouraged to regularly check the website at ohiodnr.gov/DonateVenison and follow DNR Division of Wildlife on social media to stay aware of upcoming opportunities. If a partner or local business is interested in partnering with the Division of Wildlife to host a donation location, they can contact DonateVenison@dnr.ohio.gov.