Across the countryside this morning people in cities and towns and rural areas as well awaken to begin their day. Not everyone however has the same concerns.
According to Feed America’s latest 2026 estimates 1 of every 5 Kentuckians start their day not knowing when or where their next meal will come from.
Approximately 20 percent of our state’s population does not have reliable access to enough nutritious food because of limited financial resources. One in every four or 25 percent of the children of Adair County are considered food insecure.
You may wonder how this can be when Kentuckians received $1.271 billion through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in F Y 2024 and Adair County’s allocation that same year was $6,710,448.
Sadly, not all hungry Adair Countians are eligible for SNAP benefits and Kentucky does not limit SNAP purchases to nutritious foods as some other states do, according to USDA’s most recent reports.
Senior citizens of retirement age are facing a combination of reduced incomes and increasing expenditures for health care and prescription medicines.
This dilemma is forcing many elderly Kentuckians to make decisions between allocating between their needed medicines and their nutrition. Further compounding the financial strain is the fact that Grand Parents and extended family are currently raising 6 percent of Kentucky’s children.
We can make a difference by utilizing the thriving deer herd that our state has been blessed with. Deer numbers across the Commonwealth now number in excess of 1 million head. The herd is approaching carrying capacity in many areas and automobile and deer collisions are all too common.
Farmer’s crops are being damaged to the point that economic losses are a major concern. Our deer herd has the potential, through careful herd management, to yield tons of nutritious rich lean red meat each year.
Kentucky Hunters for the Hungry is a non profit 501(c)(3) organization of volunteers formed an alliance nearly 40 years ago consisting of hunters who donate legally harvested deer, processors who produce frozen packages of deer burger, and those dedicated donors who fund the processing costs. This growing list of donors consists of Many companies, businesses, Individuals and churches. Working together this partnership is helping to alleviate the pain of hunger across our state.
In the most recent 25 years, KHFTH has delivered over 7 million servings of protein rich venison to food banks throughout Kentucky. A recent outreach from school officials prompted KHFTH to develop a venison meat stick, which is shelf stable, requiring no refrigeration, that can be used by schools in backpack feeding programs.
This spring 98,000 packages containing 196,000 meat sticks were delivered to local school districts here in Kentucky.
The Adair County school system’s method of dispersal of these meat sticks by Family Resource Youth Service Center personnel has been extremely proficient in getting the sticks into the hands of those most in need.
Last year, utilizing donations and grants, KHFTH paid 68 processors a total of $332,000 to process 4099 deer that yielded 166,119 pounds of venison. This venison donated by hunters during the 2025 / 2026 hunting season produced 664,796 servings of 4 ounces each. The serving size needed according to USDA recommendations to meet the daily protein needs of children.
Hunters who are willing to harvest extra deer to donate, processors who are willing to prepare the venison burger for food banks and the many donors who contribute the funds necessary to make it all happen are coming together to help alleviate hunger here in Kentucky.
Hunters are encouraged to legally harvest deer beyond the needs of your household to contribute to this worthy effort. There is no cost involved to donate a deer. Thanks to the donations of supporters, hunters’ donations are free, and the hunter only needs to field dress the deer, check the deer in accordance with KDFW telecheck requirements and deliver the deer along with the KDFW telecheck confirmation number to a KHFTH participating processor.
A listing of processors can be found along with other information online at Kyhuntersforthehungry.info. Locally participating processors include Hometown Butcher, Central Ky Meats and Showalter’s Custom Meats.
Submitted by Terry Partin
