ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – As firearm season continues across Michigan, hunters are doing more than filling freezers; they’re also helping fill dinner plates of those families in need. Here is one Upper Peninsula meat market that is playing a key role in the statewide initiative called “Hunters Feeding Michigan.”
Every deer harvested in Michigan has the potential to feed more than 100 people, and through the “Hunters Feeding Michigan” program, hunters can donate their deer at no cost. Each donated animal provides an estimated 160 high-protein meals to families across the state.
“So a hunter can bring in a deer. They go out, shoot it, they bring it here. And then what we do is they’ll take, we’ll take anything they’ll give us, whether they want to give us some of the deer, all the deer, kind of, really, whatever. It doesn’t matter. We’ll take what we can,” said Elliot Ecksein, Owner of Buried Stone Farms, a meat processing facility in Escanaba.
This year, Buried Stone Farms in Escanaba is one of the DNR’s featured drop-off sites during firearm deer hunting season. Hunters can bring their deer here to be processed and then sent to Feeding America, West Michigan.
“Venison. It has a little bit of it; it kind of depends where it’s raised. If it’s raised in a corn where there’s a lot of corn, it tastes kind of like beef, but if it’s raised in the woods, it’s got a little gamey taste to it, very lean, very high in protein. Real good for you,” said Eckstein.
The donations don’t just help families in need. They also help manage Michigan’s deer population and reduce waste. For Hunter Jeff Seyka, who had a very successful outing, it was just the right thing to do.
“Just because we were having a good year, and it was, it was excess, right? And then, you know, we had hoped that it would go to help someone,” said Seyka,
Thanks to a partnership between the Michigan DNR, the Food Bank Council of Michigan, and Feeding America, every pound of venison meets strict food safety requirements and is scanned for lead and other contaminants.
Buried Stone Farms will be holding a deer donation drive this weekend, starting on Friday, November 21st. For information on when and where you can donate your deer harvest, visit the Michigan DNR website at https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/about/get-involved/hunters-feeding-michigan
