Chuck Jennings
Member
This sounds like a good deal all around. However, I don't ever remember having too much venison! 
FROM:
http://www.msnbc.com/local/bhe/MS111119.asp
Prisons spice menus with venison
By DOROTHY de SOUZA GUEDES
The Hawk Eye
Burlington, IA, November 19, 2003 - Corrections department teams with DNR to reduce deer population.
[email protected]
Inmates at Iowa's prisons might be surprised to find, well, Sloppy Does on the menu.
Thanks to the Prison Venison Program, 20,000 pounds of venison will be cooked for inmates at five institutions across the state. It's the first year for a program that the Iowa Department of Corrections and Department of Natural Resources officials hope the will be a win-win proposition: Low-cost, nutritios meat for inmates and fewer deer roaming the countryside.
Hunters are being encouraged to buy extra deer permits and donate the deer they can't eat to the program. The DOC's order should reduce the deer population by an additional 400 this season.
At an estimated 50 pounds of venison per deer, that's about 20,000 pounds of venison. That will yield 60,000 to 80,000 meals for inmates.
As for how often the meat will be served, DOC spokesperson Fred Scaletta said, "We're not really throwing it at them on an every-single-day basis."
Venison has not made its way to the Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison, where 1,000 pounds have been contracted, but the Iowa Medical and Classification Center at Oakdale already has served up a few venison dishes.
"We served our first venison on Nov. 4," said Janet Lowenberg, food service director at Oakdale.
The word spread fast from inmate cooks to the general prison population that there was venison on the menu. And the response?
"It was very good. They were pretty content with it," she said.
The first venison was added to a red sauce and served over pasta. Since then, she's served up venison in stew and as "Sloppy Joes" barbecue sandwiches.
For those inexperienced in cooking deer, prison recipes are a bit generic in that any ground meat on hand - beef, pork, turkey, and, yes, venison - can be used, she said. Next up will be nachos, cheeseburgers, macaroni casserole and tacos.
How does venison compare to other meats? The Deer Farmers' Information Network, a Canadian organization, lists nutritional information for venison on its Web site at www.venison-meat.com. Per 100 grams of meat, loin cut venison contains 150 calories, 3.3 grams of fat, 66 milligrams of cholesterol and 25 milligrams protein. Compare that to lean beef at 214 calories, 9.76 grams of fat, 92 milligrams of cholesterol and 31 milligrams of protein.
Five meat lockers are under contract with the DOC to process the deer. For Oakdale, Ruzicka's Meat Processing in Solon will do the work. Denmark Locker in Denmark will process Fort Madison's request for 1,000 pounds. The DOC will pay the lockers $1 per processed pound of meat shipped to a prison.
No one knows how many deer are roaming the state. By tracking the number of deer harvested by hunters and those killed on highways, the DNR can come up with an index that's pretty reliable. Based on that index, the DNR's Ron Harrison said the deer population probably is higher than it's ever been.
"We need to knock the deer population down. The best way to do that is through hunting," Harrison said.
Iowa's climate, abundant and nutritional food sources and available habitat make for ideal conditions for deer. There are too many deer and the DNR is coming up with ways to drop the numbers.
"We're after hunters to shoot our deer and get that population down," Harrison said. "This year you can shoot more deer than ever."
Even with the extra incentives for hunting deer, Harrison expects it to take a few years to reduce the deer population to acceptable levels. This year, depending on the hunting season selected, regular deer hunters may purchase up to seven permits and landowners up to 11.
Most hunters will only kill what they can eat, so the trick was coming up with ways to encourage hunters to buy more permits and a use for the meat.
The prison program was the second designed to motivate hunters to buy extra deer permits and donate extra deer to a good cause. Another is Help Us Stop Hunger, or HUSH, organized by the DNR and the Food Bank of Iowa.
The HUSH goal is 1,000 donated deer, which will be ground and bundled in two- and three-pound packages.
"This is a very high-quality meat. I'm sure the end users are going to find it of great value to them," said Harrison.
Hunters must complete an information card at the locker accepting donated deer for the prison and HUSH programs. Hunters are asked to phone participating lockers in advance to ensure that the DOC quota has not already been met.
The Prison Venison Program is designed to be a break-even project. Prison officials will report on the program to the Legislature in about six months.
If the word is good, requests for venison vittles could increase next year.
"If the program continues, yes, we'll do it again," Lowenberg said. She's always looking for ways to cut food costs and with beef prices on the rise, venison may be a fill-in. "Next year maybe even more poundage."
FROM:
http://www.msnbc.com/local/bhe/MS111119.asp
Prisons spice menus with venison
By DOROTHY de SOUZA GUEDES
The Hawk Eye
Burlington, IA, November 19, 2003 - Corrections department teams with DNR to reduce deer population.
[email protected]
Inmates at Iowa's prisons might be surprised to find, well, Sloppy Does on the menu.
Thanks to the Prison Venison Program, 20,000 pounds of venison will be cooked for inmates at five institutions across the state. It's the first year for a program that the Iowa Department of Corrections and Department of Natural Resources officials hope the will be a win-win proposition: Low-cost, nutritios meat for inmates and fewer deer roaming the countryside.
Hunters are being encouraged to buy extra deer permits and donate the deer they can't eat to the program. The DOC's order should reduce the deer population by an additional 400 this season.
At an estimated 50 pounds of venison per deer, that's about 20,000 pounds of venison. That will yield 60,000 to 80,000 meals for inmates.
As for how often the meat will be served, DOC spokesperson Fred Scaletta said, "We're not really throwing it at them on an every-single-day basis."
Venison has not made its way to the Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison, where 1,000 pounds have been contracted, but the Iowa Medical and Classification Center at Oakdale already has served up a few venison dishes.
"We served our first venison on Nov. 4," said Janet Lowenberg, food service director at Oakdale.
The word spread fast from inmate cooks to the general prison population that there was venison on the menu. And the response?
"It was very good. They were pretty content with it," she said.
The first venison was added to a red sauce and served over pasta. Since then, she's served up venison in stew and as "Sloppy Joes" barbecue sandwiches.
For those inexperienced in cooking deer, prison recipes are a bit generic in that any ground meat on hand - beef, pork, turkey, and, yes, venison - can be used, she said. Next up will be nachos, cheeseburgers, macaroni casserole and tacos.
How does venison compare to other meats? The Deer Farmers' Information Network, a Canadian organization, lists nutritional information for venison on its Web site at www.venison-meat.com. Per 100 grams of meat, loin cut venison contains 150 calories, 3.3 grams of fat, 66 milligrams of cholesterol and 25 milligrams protein. Compare that to lean beef at 214 calories, 9.76 grams of fat, 92 milligrams of cholesterol and 31 milligrams of protein.
Five meat lockers are under contract with the DOC to process the deer. For Oakdale, Ruzicka's Meat Processing in Solon will do the work. Denmark Locker in Denmark will process Fort Madison's request for 1,000 pounds. The DOC will pay the lockers $1 per processed pound of meat shipped to a prison.
No one knows how many deer are roaming the state. By tracking the number of deer harvested by hunters and those killed on highways, the DNR can come up with an index that's pretty reliable. Based on that index, the DNR's Ron Harrison said the deer population probably is higher than it's ever been.
"We need to knock the deer population down. The best way to do that is through hunting," Harrison said.
Iowa's climate, abundant and nutritional food sources and available habitat make for ideal conditions for deer. There are too many deer and the DNR is coming up with ways to drop the numbers.
"We're after hunters to shoot our deer and get that population down," Harrison said. "This year you can shoot more deer than ever."
Even with the extra incentives for hunting deer, Harrison expects it to take a few years to reduce the deer population to acceptable levels. This year, depending on the hunting season selected, regular deer hunters may purchase up to seven permits and landowners up to 11.
Most hunters will only kill what they can eat, so the trick was coming up with ways to encourage hunters to buy more permits and a use for the meat.
The prison program was the second designed to motivate hunters to buy extra deer permits and donate extra deer to a good cause. Another is Help Us Stop Hunger, or HUSH, organized by the DNR and the Food Bank of Iowa.
The HUSH goal is 1,000 donated deer, which will be ground and bundled in two- and three-pound packages.
"This is a very high-quality meat. I'm sure the end users are going to find it of great value to them," said Harrison.
Hunters must complete an information card at the locker accepting donated deer for the prison and HUSH programs. Hunters are asked to phone participating lockers in advance to ensure that the DOC quota has not already been met.
The Prison Venison Program is designed to be a break-even project. Prison officials will report on the program to the Legislature in about six months.
If the word is good, requests for venison vittles could increase next year.
"If the program continues, yes, we'll do it again," Lowenberg said. She's always looking for ways to cut food costs and with beef prices on the rise, venison may be a fill-in. "Next year maybe even more poundage."
