PITTSBURGH — There is a different kind of food chain at work today in Pennsylvania's forestlands, one that is being applied, with lean efficiency, to the enduring human problems of poverty and hunger.

A deer, foraging for seedlings in an overbrowsed forest, might come to several ends. It might waste away from starvation or disease, a victim of its own overpopulation. Or it could rendezvous with the grillwork of an oncoming motor vehicle along the state's busy highways.

But that deer might also be dispatched by a socially conscious hunter holding an extra deer tag who will then haul his quarry to an equally socially conscious butcher working with the statewide program, Hunters Sharing the Harvest.

The butcher takes a hit on his normal processing fee, to which the hunter generously chips in $15, and the deer — now ground-up, quality-inspected and neatly encased in 1-pound packages — arrives at food banks and soup kitchens that are delighted to add to their inventory such a lean and high-protein commodity.

The deer makes its final appearance in the food boxes and chili recipes and Sloppy Joe sandwiches that will fill, at least for a while, the empty stomachs of needy Pennsylvania families.

"It is a win-win situation for everybody," said Bill Choby, Hunters Sharing the Harvest coordinator for Western Pennsylvania.

Hunters Sharing the Harvest began in 1991, and has grown to include a huge network of volunteers.

Last year, the program directed more than 80,000 pounds of venison to food banks and soup kitchens, big and small, across the state. In 2005, the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank received 15,073 pounds of it. The Miners Community Food Pantry in tiny Nanty Glo, Cambria County, got about 50 pounds, or one deer's worth.

"We're in a more rural area, and it goes really fast here," said Janet Reese, director of the food pantry, which serves about 300 families per month in Jackson, East Taylor and Blacklick townships.

For needy families, the deer meat is highly sought-after, said Choby, a lifelong hunter and one of the program's earliest supporters.

"When word gets around that venison is available, the people line up for it; they love it," he said.

For hunters, there is the satisfaction of being part of a mutually beneficial proposition: helping to control the deer population — for the biodiversity of the forests, the safety of humans and the health of the deer themselves — as well as feeding poor families within their own communities.

Butchers also see a benefit, getting their businesses listed with the program, which is linked to the Pennsylvania Game Commission Web site. The program is publicized in the magazine that is sent out with every hunter's license.

Most hunters donate the proceeds of their second or third deer tag.

"The marvelous thing about the program is that we have a God-given resource that in some cases is very abundant," said Choby. "Our goal is just to make wise use of this resource, to the benefit of many."