Established in 1993, South Dakota Sportsmen Against Hunger (SDSAH), in cooperation with Feeding South Dakota (FSD) and the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks (SDSGFP), has continued to provide a means for hunters to provide nutritious game meat to families in need. The result has been donation of 986,150 pounds of game meat since SDSAH inception, or near the milestone of 1,000,000 pounds.

Initial emphasis was on encouraging donation of deer and antelope through participating game processors and local food pantries. Through the years increased opportunities were provided by SDSAH for donation of additional game such as Canada geese, pheasants, and walleye. At the same time hunters became more aware of need and demand for game meat by poverty-level families and took advantage of the additional opportunities for donation.

To provide more incentive for hunters to harvest and donate antlerless deer, doe/fawn antelope and Canada geese in cooperation with SDGFP game management objectives, SDSAH developed a Processing Certificate Program to help hunters pay for processing of these donated game. Upon donation at a SDSAH game processor, hunters would complete a processing certificate and give it back to the processor which would cover most or all of the processing cost of the donated game. Processors would submit the completed processing certificates to SDSAH for reimbursement. A primary source of funding to support the Processing Certificate Program has been cash donations received from hunters through the SDGFP hunting license application checkoff system.

To supplement hunter donation of game meat, SDSAH developed a salvage processing program whereby arrangements were developed with entities such as SDGFP for acceptance and processing of salvageable road-killed game, confiscated game, etc. Agreements were also made with cities for accepting game taken in population reduction programs, cost-sharing the processing costs, and providing the processed meat to FSD food banks.

In 2020, sportsmen and sportswomen donated 118 antlerless deer, 59 buck deer, 2 doe/fawn antelope, 755 pheasants, and 465 walleye. A total of 276 deer from Rapid City and Ellsworth Air Force Base deer reduction programs were salvage processed. Hunters also donated 459 pounds of game meat through SDSAH food drives. Total amount of game meat donated from all sources in 2020 was 20,086 pounds.

With continued support from thoughtful hunters the milestone of 1,000,000 pounds of game meat donated to families in need will be reached in 2021.

For more information on South Dakota Sportsmen Against Hunger, go to website www.feedtheneedsd.com.