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The Alabama Black Belt Adventures Association (ALBBAA) will be having the inaugural Black Belt Hunters Food Drive to the Hunters Helping the Hungry program over the MLK holiday weekend.

The ALBBAA encourages hunters in the region to donate a harvested deer between Friday and Monday, the MLK holiday, for the program.

“We know this past year has been difficult for many and we hope this targeted weekend will assist in providing healthy, organic and ground venison to families in need all across the Black Belt region,” ALBBAA Director Pam Swanner said.

“During this time of year, and especially with the impact of COVID-19, we couldn’t think of a better way to encourage sportsmen and women to utilize this free program to support the areas in which they go afield.”

A formal program of the Alabama Conservation and Natural Resources (ACNR) Foundation, the Hunters Helping the Hungry (HHH) program began in 1999 and donated nearly half a million pounds of venison to food banks across the state in that span.

Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Commissioner Chris Blankenship chairs the ACNR Foundation and sees importance of the HHH program. Hunters can process the deer for free.

“This established program has been a staple for wildlife managers over the past 20 years and helps fill a critical need in communities across the state as well as allows for quality deer management,” Blankenship said.

“We are proud to offer this program and are grateful to the participating processors. This is a fantastic way for hunters to take advantage of our abundant deer population, months-long season and liberal bag limits to provide meat for the freezer for their own families as well as those in need.”

The Black Belt Region only has seven processors and 15 food banks participating in the HHH program. The participating processors are Buckster’s Deer Processing (Montgomery County), M & S Wildlife Services (Choctaw County), Nichols Deer Processing (Dallas County), Richey’s Deer Processing (Hale County), Johns Deer Processing (Lee County), Milliron’s Deer Processing (Russell County) and Venison LLC (Wilcox County.

For a full list of participating processors and food banks, visit: https://www.outdooralabama.com/programs/hunters-helping-hungry.

Anyone who donate a deer to the Hunters Helping the Hungry program during the designated food drive and tag Alabama Black Belt Adventures on Facebook or Instagram will be entered into a random drawing for a donated antler mount from Foster’s Taxidermy Supply in Montgomery.

The Black Belt includes the following counties: Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Choctaw, Clarke, Conecuh, Crenshaw, Dallas, Greene, Hale, Lee, Lowndes, Macon, Marengo, Monroe, Montgomery, Perry, Pickens, Pike, Russell, Sumter, Tuscaloosa and Wilcox.