Butchering a wild deer and delivering the venison mince Photo: Supplied
Hunters for Hope's Steve Hill and Adam Kreisel turn surplus venison from hunters and farmers into high-protein food parcels for low income families.
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It all started after the pair, keen recreational hunters themselves, had chest freezers full of venison trim and no use for it.
"So we started off paying the local butcher to turn it into mince and we donated it to the local food banks and charity groups," said Hill who works as a stock agent.
This was costing them a lot of money, so Kreisel, a civil contractor, installed two walk-in chillers on his property in Swannanoa, one for storing venison and the other for processing it.
Butchering venison at the Hunters4Hope HQ Photo: Supplied
Tubs of venison mince outside the processing container Photo: Supplied
Then Hill thought, "if we've got a surplus, so have other hunters," so they approached the North Canterbury Hunting Competition to see if any fellow hunters would donate a deer.
The competition's organising committee loved the idea and last year, after the weigh-in at the Amuri Showgrounds in Rotherham, they were given more deer than they were expecting.
"We took 50 and we were at the limit of what we could process. Around about 900 kilos of venison went to food banks."
Steve and Adam Photo: Supplied
The North Canterbury Hunting Competition attracts a big crowd Photo: Supplied
Hill said farmers were regularly inviting them to go and shoot deer on their farms.
"There is quite a heavy population of deer that have started to come off conservation land and invading onto farmland and eating crops and feed that was designated for stock.
"We got approached earlier in the year by one farmer who had quite a deer problem. So over the next couple of weeks we cleaned 30 or 40 deer up off that farm."
The pair has since enlisted what Hill calls "Dad's Army" to help out with butchering and mincing.
"They're Adam's father and his father's mates from the pub and they're a fantastic group of old buggers!"
Deer being delivered and hung up at the North Canterbury Hunting Competition in July Photo: Supplied
This year, the North Canterbury Hunting Competition provided 140 deer which the pair processed into just over two tonnes of mince and 145 kilos of back steak.
As a rule of thumb, a kilogram of mince normally provides about eight meal portions.
"So two tonnes of mince would have been, what, 16,000 meals. So that's pretty cool," Hill said.
The meat was transported to the Hope Community Trust in Rangiora and by the end of the day it was all gone.
Steve Hill, Tracy Pirie, Shirley Cairns and Adam Kreisel and his daughter in front of Shirley's truck full on venison mince, that's destined for families in Kaiapoi Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Tracy Pirie is the manager of the trust, which has a counselling centre, a community garden, a food bank and an op shop.
"We have about 18 organisations from Oxford to Kaikōura that come and pick it up," she said.
The Hunters4Hope mobile chiller has become a regular sight at the trust.
Mathias Pitama chats with Steve Hill after loading 100 kilos of mince into his truck Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
On the first Thursday morning of every month a queue of trucks wait their turn to pick up some mince.
For Hill and Kreisel, it's an opportunity to chat with the volunteers who distribute it.
"It's personally rewarding to get an understanding not only of the people that are donating venison, but we also get to meet the people at the other end who are dealing with the cold face of poverty and cost of living crisis," Hill said.
Volunteers prepare and bag surplus mince at the Hope Community Trust's kitchen in Rangiora Photo: Supplied
The packaged mince is ready for distribution Photo: Supplied
Learn more:
- Listen to the Deer Wars podcast for more on NZ's deer culling industry