On Saturdays, Sterling Heights resident Marilyn Rimkus passes out food to needy families at Heritage Church near her home. The 71-year-old retiree arrives around 9 a.m. to help set up, spends about two and a half hours serving the people who come, then leaves a little before noon, after she finishes cleaning up. But for Rimkus, it’s more than just a way to spend her free time paying it forward.
“I don’t want to just be a taker,” she said. “It’s important for me to give back, too.”
You see, Rimkus isn’t just a volunteer – she also depends on the food that she receives from the pantry. She said living on a fixed income makes it difficult to eat healthfully while still making ends meet, but thanks to food pantries in Metro Detroit, she’s been able to maintain a nutritious diet. That includes incorporating a type of protein into her meals that she said she never would have previously considered.
“I’ve become a big fan of the venison that’s offered here,” she said. “My sons were both deer hunters, but I never tried it before. I don’t know why; I guess I just had something in my head against it. But now I really like it. I use it in everything – chili, spaghetti, sloppy joes. It’s great meat.”
The venison that Rimkus and other food pantry customers use is provided by Michigan Sportsmen Against Hunger, a nonprofit program that allows hunters to donate the white-tailed deer they collect during hunting season to underprivileged Michigan families and individuals. All venison is ground into hamburger by local wild game processors, who receive a stipend for every pound of meat they create from the deer. That meat is then frozen in tubes and distributed well past the end of hunting season into these warm spring and summer months.
“It doesn’t cost the hunter anything, and we try to cover as much of the processing costs as we can,” said Dean Hall, president of Michigan Sportsmen Against Hunger. “It’s an efficient use of resources toward one of the most worthwhile causes you can contribute to. There’s still so much food insufficiency in the state right now.” Continue reading >> https://www.freep.com/story/sponsor-story/michigan-wildlife-council/2018/06/12/goodwill-hunting-how-michigan-hunters-helping-feed-needy-families/679043002/