Most hunters could take multiple deer each season, but only take one because of storage space. An alternative is a donation to Hunters for the Hungry. (Steve Knight/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

For years Texas hunters have typically taken just one deer per season. The reason most often given is that is all they have room for in their freezer.

Sure, there are some that take more, but for most it is one-and-done even if they still go out and spend time in the blind.

Texas hunters last year took an estimated 739,000 white-tailed deer. Fifty-seven percent of those were bucks. With an estimated population of 4.7 million, the state has more than enough deer for a bigger harvest, especially on the antlerless side in most of the state..

Texas has liberal limits compared to most states with some hunters having the opportunity of five deer per season. Even in places with marginal deer herds like East Texas hunters can still take three deer.

The same problem, though, comes up. The lack of freezer space.

The solution for hunters who want to take more deer as part of a management plan is as it has been for years, Hunters for the Hungry. Associated agencies, like East Texas Food Bank, have more than enough freezer space, and a too-long list of people needing assistance.

The Hunters for the Hungry program has been around since the 1990s, having first started in Virginia. In recent years programs across the country have provided a total of about 8 million servings of protein a year. Surprisingly, Texas is not one of the larger participants even though the state’s annual harvest usually almost doubles of whatever state is No. 2. The states where the program is most popular are Virginia, Missouri, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

In Texas hunters can donate not only white-tailed deer, but also exotics like axis, blackbuck, fallow, nilgai, oryx and sitka.

Because of their potential to carry disease and concerns over handling, hunters are not able to donate wild pigs in Texas.

Also, the program only accepts fresh-killed game, and not venison that has previously been packaged.

The backbone of the program has always been participating processors. These processors can be found throughout the state, but there are currently four that are tied to the East Texas Food Bank, 7-H Processing, Quitman; FTF Deer Processing, Hooks; Massingill’s Meat Market, Lufkin; and TFB Country Store, Troup.

“Last year we did about 49 deer for Hunters for the Hungry, and processed a total of about 1,500,” said TFB Country Store spokeswoman Natalie Hardy. “That was quite a few. It was more than we have done in previous years.”

TFB Country Store is in its fourth deer season, having taken over Carnes Packaging, which started the locations legacy with Hunters for the Hungry. TFB does the processing for the program for free to hunters.

“We do it because we want to help the community and because it is the right thing to do,” Hardy explained.

While different processors have different rules, TFB asks that deer for the program are brought in quartered, or if not that the hunter tries to pay at least some of the cost for skinning and quartering.

Several years ago, I was part of a team helping cull deer on a Hill Country ranch where numbers get way out of whack. There were only a small number of us doing the hunt, and we had more than a hundred to kill annually for about four years. It did not take us long to fill up our freezers with multiple deer. Then deer were given to friends of the ranch hand and to local food closets in the area. After all those were full, I started quartering deer and bringing them back to Tyler where they were donated through what is now TFB Country Store.

At some point I lost count how many deer I had brought back, but we figure that over a several year period we had provided about 14,000 four-ounce servings of meat to those in need. Talk about a win-win situation. I felt good about knowing beyond the necessary management work that we were able to help neighbors.

Throughout the state, the Thanksgiving holidays trail only opening day in the number of hunters in the field, and this would be a good time to help others.

Also, with an extended doe season running through Dec. 1 in East Texas, hunters have additional time to take a doe this year while still having more than a month to find a buck.