FARMERS AND HUNTERS FEEDING THE HUNGRY INC

Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry provides nutritious, protein-rich meat donated by hunters and farmers to the needy across the United States. Our current goal is to increase the total amount of meat distributed annually to 250,000 pounds - enough for 1 million servings per year.

Our strategy involves raising money to pay qualified, health inspected butcher shops and meat processing plants to process and package deer, elk and livestock donated by hunters and farmers. The meat is then distributed free of charge to local food banks, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and ministries that serve the needy of their communities. These local networks are established and maintained by our volunteers who apply to serve as the coordinators in their counties.

To reach our goal of 1 million servings of meat per year we must: 1) increase the number of volunteer coordinators and participating meat processors, 2) assist our existing coordinators in raising additional funding to expand their capacity.

These strategies can be enacted by continuing to improve and develop the resources provided to our existing volunteer coordinators with regard to raising money, advertising, and promoting their local programs. Increasing the number of volunteer coordinators participating and hunters/farmers donating their harvest can be addressed by leveraging new and existing forms of media and outreach. These include social networking sites, targeted online advertising, and continued use of print media and video productions created by sponsoring companies to introduce Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry to potential volunteers and donors.

Our network includes 90 volunteer coordinators serving in 20 different states, and we have 175 meat processors currently participating in the program. The grassroots nature of our program delivery enables our coordinators to successfully raise funding to pay their local meat processing bills.

We avoid administrative duplication by handling all paperwork, income processing, invoice payment, and other organizational responsibilities through one national office.

We have been able to cultivate positive relationships with food banks, agriculture and grain producer groups, sportsmen's groups, state Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Departments and the hunting/outdoors/shooting sports industries.

The success of the program to date indicates that the format and structure are sound. The only limiting factors are the number of volunteer coordinators, the amount of funding that can be raised to cover the meat processing bills, and the number of deer, elk and livestock that hunters and farmers are willing to donate.

Since 1997 Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry has made significant progress. We have engaged the efforts of hundreds of volunteers who are making a difference in their communities by providing the opportunity for many thousands of hunters and farmers to donate their harvest to feed the needy. To date over 20.5 million servings of meat have been donated, processed and distributed to food banks and feeding ministries.