For a lot of Baton Rouge families, deer season fills the freezer. A local nonprofit has spent more than 30 years making sure some of that harvest ends up on tables that need it most.

Hunters For The Hungry started in 1994, when a group of Baton Rouge-area hunters got together to talk about sharing the game and fish they brought home each year. Their first donations went to the dining hall at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Storage there filled up fast, so the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank stepped in. Today the Baton Rouge-based organization works with all five of Louisiana's regional food banks through Feeding Louisiana, which distributes food to more than 500 agencies across all 64 parishes.

Donate a deer, keep the backstrap

The group's Freshly Harvested Deer and Hog Program is the easiest way to help during hunting season. Hunters drop off a deer or hog at a participating processor, and the processing is free to the hunter. The food bank or another local agency picks up the meat, and Hunters For The Hungry pays the processor's bill. Donors can even keep the backstrap.

Around the Capital Region, participating processors include Tramonte's Meat and Seafood in Baton Rouge, Porche's Sausage in French Settlement, Roucher's Meat Market and Riverside Specialty Meats in Plaquemine, The Francis Smokehouse & Specialty Meats in St. Francisville and Leblanc's Processing & Meat Shop in Morganza. Requirements vary. Some want the animal field dressed, some will skin it for you, and not every shop takes hogs, so call ahead.

Other ways to pitch in

Have older fish or game in the freezer? The food banks ask that donations be tightly sealed (vacuum sealing is best), clearly labeled and dated, and they generally won't take anything more than a year old. Not a hunter? You can check "yes" to donate when you buy a Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries license, or give directly online.

Its statewide Clean Out Your Freezer Day collected 19,465 pounds this August. Deer season offers plenty more chances to share.

Photo courtesy of Hunters For The Hungry.