NRA Declares November ‘Wild Game Meat Donation Month’

Recognizing the hunters across America who donate millions of pounds of nutritious game meat to their local Hunters for the Hungry programs each year, the NRA and its millions of members are pleased to designate November as “Wild Game Meat Donation Month.” The first-ever month-long celebration acknowledges hunters’ role in helping to feed the needy while encouraging all hunters to share their surplus venison or other game meat. And as Thanksgiving approaches, what better month is there to give back while supporting the organizations that are on the frontlines distributing game meat in our own communities?

“The NRA is excited to spearhead the first ever Wild Game Meat Donation Month,” said Joseph P. De Bergalis Jr., Executive Director of NRA General Operations, who plans to make the move an annual initiative. “We implore other hunter-backed conservation groups to help celebrate the hard-working network of Hunters for the Hungry organizations around America by spreading the word and asking their members to donate legally harvested wild game meat to processors and food banks in their communities.”

For some powerful statistics, recently completed research funded by the NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum (HLF) shows that we hunters share 119 million pounds of harvested game meat with others outside our households each year—including with our friends, food banks and hunger relief organizations through Hunters for the Hungry—and that hunters who are members of a conservation organization are three times more likely to donate their harvests. Included in the findings was the fact that in 2022, many game meat processors involved in a Hunters for the Hungry network did not receive enough game meat donations to complete their missions, which shows that even more game meat donations are needed.

As we hunters head for the woods this season, consider donating part of your harvest or making a financial contribution to a local game-meat distribution program near you. With so many hunters living in areas that have expanding whitetail deer populations, those whose state wildlife agencies offer surplus deer tags can buy an extra tag to harvest an additional doe to donate. This also goes far in keeping deer populations within carrying capacity as wildlife agencies continue to rely on hunting as a vital wildlife management tool.

To learn more about the NRA’s launch of Wild Game Meat Donation Month, please visit NWGMDM.nra.org. The website offers logos for use in your social media promotions and other tools to help you create content. To contact an NRA representative directly for more details, please contact the NRA HLF’s Peter Churchbourne at [email protected].