“Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry” makes donation to local food banks

A newer non-profit group in Idaho wants to make sure more people have some meat with their meal.

Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry is a group that started in Idaho Falls in September of last year. It’s a part of a larger group that’s based in Maryland.

On Friday, the group made a donation to the Idaho Falls Soup Kitchen and the Idaho Falls Community Food Basket.

“As a hunter, if my freezer is already full or I just want to donate part or all of the animal that I harvest then I can just donate it to a facility like Ball Meats,” said Nate Matlack with the Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry

The group doesn’t do it alone, it takes a decent amount of money to process and package the meat to send to the groups in need. Through a partnership with Ball Meats and Southeast Idaho Hunters, many sponsors make it possible for the meat to get stored and put together for delivery.

Some of the sponsors that help out with the process include Idaho Falls Civitans, Idaho National Laboratory with corporate funds from Battelle Energy Alliance, Cabela’s outdoor fund, Pope & Young Club, and Artcore Visual Studios.

For local non-profit groups like the Idaho Falls Soup Kitchen, donations like this are also a big offset of costs for them “right now I spend about $900 a month on purchasing meat so any donation helps reduce the cost of what I have to spend to purchase it,” said Kaaren Parsons, Director of the Idaho Falls Soup Kitchen.