Wilson is the operations director of Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry, a Maryland nonprofit that donates local deer harvests to the hungry.
Where did you get the idea for FHFH?
My dad actually formed it just over 12 years ago in Washington County. We learned about the idea in Virginia when we were hunting at a farm down below Winchester called Virginia Hunters for the Hungry. Then Dad thought it would be a good thing to start here in our community. We started it in our church, and a couple years after that we started having folks in neighboring states wanting to work with us.
Where do you get the deer?
Farmers and hunters donate the livestock and we work with butcher shops across the country to package and distribute the meat and feed it to the hungry.
Do you ever use road kill?
Very early on the butchers we worked with pointed out that usually with road kill, there is a lot of damage to the meat, which makes it partially spoiled. We learned it is better to deal with hunters who shoot the deer and bring it in fresh. Generally, the meat is very good.
How many deer are donated each year?
We have one butcher on the Easter Shore who takes over 300 donated deer every year. In Maryland, we work with just over 35 butchers and we’ve been averaging about 2,500 deer a year for the last three or four years. But the potential is much greater than we’re seeing at this point. The hunters have the potential to donate more deer than the funds we’re able to raise for processing the meat.
How do you afford processing fees?
Fundraising. And the butchers give us a discount. Typically, butchers would charge hunters $60 to $80 to take a deer carcass and turn it into packages of steaks and ground meat. They charge us $50 to $60 per deer.
