Success StoryCampbell County Deer Donation Program Provides Meals for Food-Insecure Families, Increases Road Safety and Decreases Nuisance Wildlife Population



Campbell County Deer Donation Program Provides Meals for Food-Insecure Families, Increases Road Safety and Decreases Nuisance Wildlife Population

Author: Michelle Simon

Planning Unit: Campbell County CES

Major Program: Wildlife Habitat and Damage Management Education

Plan of Work: Agriculture and Natural Resource Education - Agriculture Awareness

Outcome: Long-Term Outcome

Campbell County, Kentucky has a population of 93,584; 13.5% of which is considered food insecure and below the poverty level for the state of Kentucky.  Couple this with the Northern Kentucky Tribune statistic of being ranked second for the likelihood of being in a motor vehicle accident caused by deer, ignited the idea for a deer donation program in the county. Campbell County Agriculture Agent, Natural Resources Agent and Family Consumer Sciences Agents partnered with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, UK’s Cook Wild program, Kentucky Hunters for the Hungry, Stacey’s Meat Processing and Main Street Baptist Church’s Care Mission to offer the Set Your Sights to End Hunger in Campbell County program.  Campbell County ANR Agent worked to brand the program, market to local businesses and the community to encourage community members to participate, delivered Cook Wild recipes to local deer processing facilities and coordinated the logistics of the program with the Hunters for the Hungry and Stacey’s Meat Processing to ensure it was distributed to local, needy families by way of Main Street Baptist Church’s Care Mission. A total of 12 deer were donated to the program and processed by Stacey’s Meat Processing; these 12 deer provided 651 pounds of meat and approximately 1,344 meals for families that are food insecure. Additionally, this program encouraged hunters to harvest more deer than they normally would take which reduced the deer population that contribute to an average of 3,000 deer-related motor vehicle accidents in Campbell County. This in turn increased driver safety on roadways decreasing the 1 in 100 chance of a driver hitting a deer while travelling in the county. Since the deer population is the largest contributing factor to crop damage in Campbell County as well, this reduction in the deer population also aided in the increase of crop yields which increased the profits and economic viability of forage, horticulture, grain and livestock operations in Campbell County.






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