Hunters Help Feed Homeless

Hunters took over a home-less shelter Tuesday, turning their game into cooked meals.  The lasagna this lunch hour looks like any other day at the Chattanooga Community Kitchen but it's not.  Instead it's venison lasagna, made with more than forty pounds of deer meat donated by hunters.  Members of Chattanooga's Safari Club International wanted a way to give back to their community.  "This is the start of the deer season so we really had to scramble to get 40 pounds of ground venison to have enough food for here today," says President Bill Swan.

They not only provided the meat, but all the fixings as well for more than 300 now-satisfied stomachs.  Folks like Lonnie are thankful for something other than the standards.  "They do have a lot of turkey and a lot of chicken," he says.  "It's nice to get a little variety

The Community Kitchen makes up to 600 meals a day and most of it is made with whatever food is available.   "It was really nice to get someone saying 'what do you want us to bring and we'll bring everything you need'," says Chef Kimberly Austin, "because normally I have to assemble the meal based on what we have."

The Community Kitchen says gifts like this are a blessing especially at this time of year.  They are ten months past Christmas and one month away from Thanksgiving.  "Everyone remembers us then," says Austin.  "But it's the rest of the year that it's important people remember that we're still here.  We're still feeding people."

And they're feeding more mouths now than ever.  So far this year, the Kitchen has served 125,000 meals compared to 130,000 all of last year. 

The program 'Sportsmen Against Hunger' is put on by the Safari Club, Comcast and the Outdoor Channel.  Hunters can donate any meat they catch to the cause by clicking on the Chattanooga Safari Club International website.