Good Samaritan Ministries reports that The Deer Project is off to a good start with 3,107 pounds of venison collected as of Thursday.

The Deer Project is a program where hunters who use their extra tags to donate deer helping to provide fresh, lean protein to friends and neighbors who have fallen on hard times.  Once again Good Samaritan Ministries is offering the program at no cost to the hunters.  All they have to do is take their legally harvested and tagged deer to one of the participating processors and tell them to donate it to The Deer Project.

Participating processors this year are:

   •M&M Processing, Zephyr

   •Ted’s Deer Processing, Owens

   •Perk’s Deer Processing, Brownwood

   •Santa Anna Custom Processing

   •Cross Plains Frozen Food Locker

Last season’s Deer Project brought in 10,480 pounds of venison and high goals have been set for The Deer Project this year .  The goal of the project in 2011 is much larger because the need is so much greater this year.   Last year 1.200 families were served by GSM’s food pantry during December.  According to GSM, possibly 2,000 will need assistance this year.

“Our goal this year is 32,000 pounds of deer meat which will cost $50,000 to process,” said officials at GSM.  “This is by far the loftiest goal yet and, and we can’t wait to see what the Lord does.”

GSM spread the word about this increased goal in a recent GSM newsletter and sent out a team from the community who are working hard to get donations to cover this cost of processing.

GSM, as always, welcomes any monetary donations to The Deer Project to help cover the cost of processing.  Anyone interested in participating in the project that does not hunt may mail their donation to Good Samaritan Ministries, P.O. Box 1136, Brownwood, Texas 76801 or make a donation online via PayPal at www.goodsambwd.org.