Renewing a license plate at your local county court house isn’t any fun. It involves paying a fairly expensive bill to just continue driving for another year legally. It isn’t a new rod and reel or a portable hunting blind.

Since paying the license renewal fee already hurts, why not alleviate some of the pain by doing good. You can donate $2 to Kentucky Hunters for the Hungry and provide protein-rich venison meals to the needy.

“We want to ask all hunters and outdoors enthusiasts in general to participate in this program,” said Dr. Jon Gassett, Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “The $2 goes toward offsetting the processing costs of deer our hunters donate to Kentucky Hunters for the Hungry that provides nutritious meals for needy Kentuckians. It is a great program.”

Kentucky Hunters for the Hungry recently surpassed 2 million meals provided to hungry Kentuckians. Deer hunters across the state donate one or more of the deer they harvest to the program. They work with deer processors across Kentucky to pay the costs of processing the donated deer. The venison is given to hunger relief organization Kentucky Harvest for distribution to homeless shelters and food banks.

“Kentucky Harvest is just a vehicle,” said Stan Curtis, founder of Kentucky Harvest. “We have been able to deliver protein to the unfortunate and needy across Kentucky. Protein is a vital ingredient in living and the development of the young. In other hunger relief programs, most protein comes from peanut butter. But, we’ve been able to deliver protein-rich venison.”

In the early stages of Kentucky Hunters for the Hungry, hunters had to donate the deer they harvested and also the processing cost of the deer. Now, the program has enough funding to offset the costs of processing the venison.

“We’ve been with Kentucky Hunters for the Hungry for the better part of a decade, long before the donation program started,” Curtis said. “It is very useful and effective. It allows hunters to do something big for something good. We are very proud of our association with Kentucky Hunters for the Hungry and Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. It is amazing what you can do when you don’t care who gets the credit.”

For more information about Kentucky Hunters for the Hungry, log on to http://www.huntersforhungry.org or http://fw.ky.gov.

Lee McClellan is an award-winning writer for Kentucky Afield magazine, the official publication of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. He is a life-long hunter and angler, with a passion for smallmouth bass fishing.