Deer Management – The Country Food Trust
Founded in 2015, The Country Food Trust (CFT) is celebrating its 10th year of operation this summer, by launching an appeal to fundraise for refrigerated vans, so that more meals to more locations can be achieved.
The Country Food Trust is a food poverty charity that distributes wild meats, largely, pheasant, partridge and venison to foodbanks and community kitchens in the UK. We do this in two ways; raw meat and ambient meals (Venison bolognese, Pheasant casserole, Partridge curry). These ambient meals are pressure cooked in special pouches, which gives them a store cupboard shelf life of 12 months from manufacture. As the meals are fully cooked inside the pouches, they can be eaten straight from the pouch, if no heating facilities are available or, they can be heated in the microwave and added to a carbohydrate for a complete meal.
Protein is the most expensive food group, yet it is the most important food group for optimal human health. Unfortunately as it is so expensive, it is the first to be dropped by people that are hungry and cannot afford to buy food. By offering protein in the form of wild meat, CFT is trying to alleviate food poverty, and preserve the health and well-being of families around the country.
Since 2015, CFT have delivered over 6 million meals to around 1,500 foodbanks, community kitchens and homeless shelters in the UK. We have also delivered over 70,000 meals to the front line in Ukraine as part of our international humanitarian aid programme.
Last year, CFT began its first deer management project. It is estimated that there are around two million deer in the UK. Overgrazing by deer is degrading woodlands, impairing tree regeneration, reducing biodiversity (including low nesting birds and woodland plants) and harming the yield of Farmers crops. There are six varieties of deer; red, sika, fallow, roe, Chinese water deer and muntjac. The last two are non-native species. In order to get the deer population under control between 500,000-750,000 deer need to be culled every year, less than half is currently being achieved, so CFT set up an environmental and positive social impact project to address this.
In Sussex, we set up a project to cull fallow does (females) and once processed to donate the meat within Sussex to those in need. After the first season, we managed to cull 884 fallow does and feed over 170,000 people with venison costing less than 60p per portion.
The project was so successful, it is being run again in Sussex and replicated in other regions, so that CFT can feed more people.
For every deer culled, CFT are enabling forest regeneration, carbon sequestration and habitat restoration, all whilst feeding people in need with this highly nutritious meat.
The illustration on the right shows the impact of 1,000 deer to their local environment.
Next season, we are already looking at culling over 5,000 deer, mainly Chinese water deer and Muntjac, which will feed over 500,000 people.
We are always looking for more areas to make an impact – The Country Food Trust
Do you live in an area that has too many deer, destroying the landscape?
Contact SJ Hunt – Chief Executive, The Country Food Trust on sj@thecountryfoodtrust.org
