HUSH Program Lets Hunters Help the Needy - ABC5 News Des Moines, IA

HUSH Program Lets Hunters Help the Needy

By Alex Schuman

aschuman@myabc5.com

@alexschuman

The second shotgun deer season is underway.

If you bagged a deer, but don't want all that meat, the Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources has a program called Help Us Stop Hunger or HUSH that will put it good use.

Kent Wiese of Amend Packing Company, is involved in HUSH.  He lives by the lessons his dad and grandpa taught him, "Do. Not. Waste. Anything."

"If you harvest something then you better do something with it before you pull that trigger," Wiese said.   

HUSH gives all the meat to the Iowa Food Bank.

Last year, meat lockers across the state provided a million meals worth of deer meat for Iowa's less fortunate.

"We sent 1200 pounds up there on Thursday," said Wiese.

It's popular because the price for other types of meat keeps going up, which leaves people in today's economy with fewer options to eat healthy.

"It's a very good source of lean protein," he said.

A dollar fee attached to hunting licenses helps the DNR pay for the program.  Hunters pay nothing else.

All they have to do is drop off the deer at a designated locker then the meat goes to the needy, and nothing goes to waste.