A “tremendous effort” by the Pacific Island community and Southland charity Deer To Care processed over two tonnes of venison meat to support the Salvation Army foodbank in North Otago.
Deer to Care, founded by southern hunters Stu O’Neill, Southland Police senior detective Tim Cook and Niagara manager Wesley Baratcart, aims to tackle food insecurity by donating high quality, locally sourced venison.
The non-profit’s unique model combines hunting, pest control and community support to create a reliable supply chain of nutritious meat.
The Southland charity initiative Deer to Care co-founder Stu O’Neill returned to his hometown to work with the Oamaru Pacific Island Community Trust (OPICT) in providing a whopping 18,500 meals of free-range venison for those in need in the Waitaki District.
Over 30 men and women including meat industry workers came along to support the cause helping to process the wild game of 72 deer and 20 pigs on Sunday in Enfield. [...]
Although Mr O’Neill funded the meat processing and packaging costs personally he preferred to keep the focus on the team effort on the “big mission” of the meat workers efforts to process the wild-game.
“The OPICT really made this happen, it’s a credit to them, what they did was awesome,” Mr O’Neill said. [...]
Salvation Army captain Jocelyn Smith said being able to provide meat in their food parcels was a “blessing” and helped reduce “food insecurity”.
“Having healthy meat in our food parcels is such a blessing for people because they’ve given up buying it because of the rising food costs,” she said.
