Memorial United Methodist Church in Gladstone can help.
BRAMPTON -- Dennis Harrison is an avid hunter in the Gladstone area. He hunts deer, but his wife doesn't like venison!
So instead of deer burgers and deer steaks at the Harrison household, Dennis and other hunters who hunt strictly for sport donate their hunted game.
For the 18th year now, the Memorial United Methodist Church in Gladstone is collecting venison to help feed hungry Michigan families.
"We give usually about half of it to the Salvation Army in Escanaba which serves Delta County, and half we take down to Detroit where it goes to the Detroit Food Bank," explained Jackie Roe, Pastor of the church.
Memorial United Methodist has donated five to six tons of ground venison since 1991.
"I've been a member of that church since 1969...I just love to hunt, and I love to shoot deer, and so I get one every year for probably the last five to ten years," said Dennis Harrison of Rapid River.
The deer doesn't arrive at the church all in one piece. Instead, it's first taken to a meat processing plant. Sodermans in Brampton and Viau's in Escanaba work together with the UP Whitetail's Association to process the meat at no charge for the church.
"Later on tonight we'll clean it all up and get it ready for grinding tomorrow. We'll grind it and package it and put it in the freezer, and then people will come around and pick it up for the donations," said Steve Soderman, who owns the meat processing plant.
Sodermans says they'll process about 500 pounds of ground deer meat this year for the church, all frozen, packaged, ready to be shipped off to needy families, just in time for the holidays.
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