Hunters Helping the Hungry

Hunters Helping the Hungry program was created in April 2012 with the Nebraska Legislature's passage of LB 928.

This donation-funded program provides ground venison to Nebraskans in need. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission accepts cash donations to the program and uses those funds to pay contracted meat processors to prepare and package ground venison from deer donated by hunters.  The processors contact the charitable organizations specified by the Commission, who pick up and distribute the venison.

Legislation requires that all program costs be paid for only with donated funds, so the balance of donations received by early summer of each year are used to establish the budget for the following deer harvest seasons.  A fair market processing price of $85.00 per deer carcass is offered to processors.  Interested processors can apply to contract as Hunters Helping the Hungry program deer donation sites.

Processor contracts state how many donated deer they may accept from hunters, and once all quotas are met, no additional deer can be accepted under the program. Processors are asked to accept only whole deer that will likely yield at least 40 pounds of high quality ground venison. So some deer offered by hunters may not be accepted by processors even if that