Tom Rossman of Butler County Hunters Sharing the Harvest loads a box of venison into a van Wednesday afternoon at the Trinity Lutheran Church. More than 14,000 pounds of donated venison have been stored in a freezer at the church, and some was distributed to community groups Wednesday.

Trinity Lutheran Church's parking lot was a busy place Wednesday.

Cars, trucks and vans pulled in from all over Butler County, picking up pounds of packaged, donated venison to take back to their respective food pantries and kitchens.

Trinity Lutheran houses an outdoor freezer for the Hunters Sharing the Harvest program. The venison was distributed from that freezer into those vehicles, representing 30 charitable food providers from Butler, Cabot, Zelienople, Evans City, Slippery Rock, Saxonburg, Cranberry Township and West Sunbury.

“We had 14,818 pounds of venison stored in that freezer,” Butler County HSH coordinator Tom Rossman said. “We've already handed out 12,092 pounds.“There's almost 3,000 pounds still in there and a lot of that will be handed out today.”Rossman said the venison used to be stored in small hand-me-down freezers in the basement of the church. A new freezer big enough to hold all of the donated venison would cost $17,000.“We looked around for a way to get one and XTO Energy footed the bill,” Rossman said. “We received a check from State College, where their main headquarters are located.”Trinity Lutheran donated the base on which the freezer stands in the church's upper parking lot.The Rev. Joel Benson was on-hand for the venison distribution Wednesday.“We team up with St. Mark's and work with Katie's Kitchen,” Benson said. “Hunters Sharing the Harvest has been doing this for 30 years.“This is a great help to everybody. This is the type of thing God's people are supposed to do.”Rossman said 276 deer were processed for the county's HSH program and “a few thousand people will be fed” as a result.The numbers are much bigger, of course, on the statewide level.Co-founded in 1991 by John Plowman and Ken Brandt of Harrisburg, HSH has set state records in each of the past five years for number of deer donated and pounds of venison processed.

From September 2020 through the end of the 2021 deer hunting season, HSH has received 4,896 deer and processed 189,000 pounds of venison.“The program has just exploded in recent years,” HSH Executive Director Randy Ferguson said. “And it's all volunteers. I'm the only paid (HSH) employee in the state.“We have 60 county coordinators and another nine people serving on the board of directors, overseeing everything.”An average deer will provide nutritious meat for 200 meals.“Say a family harvests six deer, all that meat ... there is an opportunity there,” Ferguson said. “If they can't eat it all, give it to people who can. Hunters respond to that concept now more than ever.”While hunters volunteer the deer meat, HSH must foot the bill for the processing of it. Ferguson said the state's Department of Agriculture and Pa. Game Commission contribute in that regard. So do donations, such as a check for $2,000 presented Wednesday to Ferguson by the Southwest Synod Mission Endowment Fund.“That money goes a long, long way,” Ferguson said.Paul Jones, representing the Grapevine Center in Butler, stopped by to pick up 80 pounds of venison.“This will feed at least 200 people,” he said. “We're a drop-in center and we serve dinner every Sunday. We get 30 to 40 people coming in.“We do picnics too. Believe me, this meat comes in handy. This is a great, great program that helps a lot of people.”Bruce Thompson, representing Family Life Ministries in Butler, echoed those sentiments. “People in need of food come by and we give it to them,” Thompson said. “We're picking up two boxes of it today. Not everybody wants venison, but it's a viable option and some people take advantage of it.“The important thing is hunters are generous enough to provide this. If they don't want to eat it, somebody else will. The deer meat's not going to waste and that's a good thing.”