The Third Annual Hunt Your Food program was a great success again. Even though numbers were not what we had hoped for the entire program was well received. The collaboration of this agent and my 4-H counter part went well as usual. The participants were a small percentage of hunters in the area. What was lacking in numbers was made up in by enthusiasm. All members were very active, responsive and asking extremely good questions. By utilizing expertise from 3 different speakers, we were able to entertain and educate the crowd. The first speaker was Dr. Rentfro from the meats science lab at UK. He was able to instill the importance of taking care of your harvested animal in a timely and clean way. Greg went over the significance of watching the cleanliness of the carcass and the temperature at which it is kept before making it to the cutting floor. He also explained how many people a year are affected by food poison and food born illnesses. The next speaker was Jory Haveline and he covered hunter safety. Now, the group represented consisted of 8 males and 4 females with 4 of these being youth. One can never be too old or too young to hear the message of safe gun handling. Jory covered the do's and don'ts of safe hunting procedures. He went over how many deaths a year occur by mishandling weapons or just plan laziness that can end horribly. While speaking he went over the most important rules and regulations withing the state. The final speaker of the day was the local taxidermist, Larry Shaw. Larry covered the correct way of handling the cape of the animals for the best mounting types. He was very genuine in his ability to answer questions. The highlight of the event was the extremely good and nutritious lunch. It consisted of KY Burgoo which had all the essential vegetables and proteins. The meat was, wild boar, elk and bison. Then we also served them Bison chili. Participants were also happy to be able to participate in a small door prize event. All participants went home with some hunting gear or clothes. The finally of the program was the 4-H gun raffle. Members sold raffle tickets as a fund raiser for a chance to win one of two new rifles. The event raised $2200. This group was made up of mostly second time attendees. Those who had attended before were asked to talk about things they learned in the past and what they had put into effect in the hunting rituals. Most if not all had changed the way the took care of the game they harvested and how they carried themselves in the field. All the participants agreed they had learned new things in the years they have attended and are looking forward to nest years program.