For more than 25 years, hunters around the Garden State have been making a difference by working with Hunters Helping the Hungry, a nonprofit organization that raises money and coordinates the efforts of hunters, butchers, and food banks throughout New Jersey to help put food on the table for those in need.

The program began during the 1997/1998 hunting season, a result of the efforts of three Hunterdon County hunters along with help from a butcher named John Person and Kathy Rummel, the director at the time of Norwescap.

“We started out 25 years ago just as hunters, you know, wanting to go out and get some extra deer. New Jersey had very liberal deer quotas and bag limits. You could get unlimited does,” said Lester Giese, one of the founders of Hunters Helping the Hungry. “I was on a trip, and I was going through West Virginia, and I saw at one of the gas stations a brochure for Hunters Helping the Hungry. I picked up the brochure and looked at it and said, ‘What a great idea.’ When I got back, as it turned out, the state legislature just recently passed a law to allow venison donations.”

Five deer were donated during that first season, according to Giese. Today, the organization averages about 1,000 donations per year, which amounts to between 23,000 and 28,000 pounds of venison, he said.

Overall, since the program’s inception, Hunters Helping the Hungry has facilitated the donation of nearly 2.5 million servings of venison.

While the program originally started as a way to assist hunters who could harvest more deer than they could use, the organization’s mission has expanded. According to its website, Hunters Helping the Hungry currently aims to:

• Continue paying butchering costs for hunters who are able to take more deer than they can use;
• Support municipal and private property owners that pay for the butchering process directly while they attempt to reduce the deer population on their property;
• And set aside a portion of grants from the state Department of Agriculture to support and pay for the butchering of deer taken by farmers and their agents during depredation hunts.

These efforts ultimately help New Jersey’s food bank system and provide a source of protein to those in need, while also keeping the state’s deer herd in check

“So, kind of a nutshell, we started out just a small group of us with a small focus,” Giese said. “And now we’re trying to do a lot of things for a lot of people.”

The process: From forest to food pantry

In New Jersey the deer hunting season runs from the second week of September through the second week of February. According to Hunters Helping the Hungry board member Mark Charbonneau, this is one of the longest hunting seasons in the United States.

Hunters who want to make a donation bring their legally harvested deer to one of the state-inspected butchers that partner with the organization. Processing fees are paid to the butcher by Hunters Helping the Hungry from a fund consisting of donations and grants.

The butcher processes the deer at no cost to the hunter and gives it to one of the participating food banks, such as Norwescap, which partners with pantries in Warren, Sussex, and Hunterdon counties.

Venison issued to the food banks is distributed to over 400 charities around the state.

Although New Jersey’s deer hunting season starts in the fall, Charbonneau, a board member of about 20 years and a hunter of about 40, says that the process starts well beforehand.

“The process actually starts before hunting season starts. What I mean by that is hunters will start scouting certain locations to be able to know where deer are, to be able to prepare to harvest them legally and as ethically and quickly as possible,” said Charbonneau, adding that less than 2% of the New Jersey population are deer hunters.

Charbonneau continued, “So when you start that process of scouting areas, setting up your locations, then going afield, then harvesting your game, then removing your game from the field, then field dressing it properly, then bringing it to a butcher, then making that donation, there’s a lot of steps involved and there’s a lot of time involved.”

JB Person, an Hunters Helping the Hungry board member and the owner of GameButcher in Lebanon, is one of several participating butchers that process the donated deer.

“What the hunters do is come here, they have to fill out some paperwork, and along with the paperwork we request they also fill out a donation slip. They donate the whole deer,” Person said. “What we do is skin it and process it into various cuts – roast, steak, chops, and ground meat. Everything is cut, wrapped, and frozen and then when we have a bunch ready to go, I get in touch with Norwescap and then they come and pick it up.”

Game Butchers averages between 150 and 200 donated deer per year, according to Person, who added that Hunters Helping the hungry is “in desperate need of butchers.”

How to donate deer to Hunters Helping the Hungry

Hunters looking to make a donation can take their legally harvested deer to any of the participating butchers listed on the Hunters Helping the Hungry website.

Once the required forms have been filled out, the butcher will process the deer. The food bank will then pick up the processed deer from the butcher and distribute the frozen venison to various food pantries, emergency shelters, churches, etc.

If the dressed weight of the deer is more than 50 pounds, Hunters Helping the Hungry will pay the entire processing fee, according to the organization’s website. If the dressed weight of the deer is less than 50 pounds, the hunter will be required to pay the first $50 of the processing fee.

Throughout the 2025/2026 hunting season, a total of 802 deer were donated to Hunters Helping the Hungry. This amounts to 26,846 pounds of venison which yields 107,384 servings.

“The number one thing that people need to know about our organization is that the hunters of the great state of New Jersey are the reason for our success,” Charbonneau said. “The hunters have taken it upon themselves in the great state of New Jersey to go afield every year and harvest game to help those not as fortunate as most.”

For additional information about Hunters Helping the Hungry and how you can donate and/or get involved as a hunter or a butcher, visit the organization’s website at https://www.huntershelpingthehungry.org/.

The flooring is getting saved from Strathmere’s Beach Patrol headquarters but the building has reached its breaking point as extreme erosion left the 20 year old landmark literally on the edge.

Officials say that the building is in imminent danger of collapse into the ocean after winter storm-driven waves stripped away massive amounts of sand.

“It’s sad. It’s been here for a while,” Dave Pennello, of Upper Township Publics Works, said.

Pilings are now exposed and the building’s foundation is at risk so the township is planning to tear it down.

“The only way we could do it is spending $125,000 to try and reinforce that but there’s no guarantee that the erosion wouldn’t get worse to basically make that totally obsolete,” Upper Township Committee member Sam Palombo said. “As someone that worked at Upper Township Beach Patrol, it’s hard to see, honestly.”

The lifeguards in Strathmere will be temporarily working out of a leased modular trailer.

“My son-in-law is a lifeguard here every year. He’s one of the captains and they got a call the other day that said, ‘Get to the shack and get the stuff out of it,’” Estell Manor resident Bobbie Kenny said.

• “Security is no longer a precaution − it is a necessity that comes at a significant cost,” said Katie Katz, Executive Director of Teach New Jersey.

TEANECK — Local law enforcement vowed to step up security measures ahead of Passover, amid a global surge of antisemitism that has left North Jersey Jews grappling with anxiety.

Nearly 150 people gathered with local leaders and law enforcement at a community safety meeting held at Heichal Hatorah/The Jewish Center of Teaneck on March 25 to discuss strategies for securing houses of worship.

The event, organized by Deputy Mayor Elie Katz, came just a week before the beginning of Passover and in the wake of a March 8 incident in which a 19-year-old Jewish Teaneck resident was shot 10 times with gel pellets outside another Orthodox synagogue.

Days later, a Michigan man rammed an explosives-laden truck into a suburban Detroit synagogue and preschool, the latest in a string of anti-Jewish attacks that have picked up pace since the U.S. and Israel launched a war with Iran.

In Teaneck, home of one of New Jersey’s largest Jewish communities, residents expressed concern about recent antisemitic events and how to combat them. Shari Silverstein, a mother of two college students, asked law enforcement if she can carry pepper spray to defend herself.

She was reassured that she’s legally permitted to carry the substance, but “it’s not the most effective because it tends to get all over the place, including on yourself,” said Seth Kriegel, Deputy Chief of the Teaneck Police Department.

Others were concerned about whether there would be adequate patrols of the neighborhood over the Passover holiday, when many people will likely be walking around the neighborhood late at night to get to and from synagogue and their Passover seder, or ritual feast. Law enforcement officials said they were aware of the unique schedule of each Jewish holiday and would have extra police patrols.

Tim Torell, Jewish Community Security Director at Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, said the local community has had numerous incidents in which Jewish people were targeted even while walking to and from synagogue. “Things were thrown at them from vehicles and people shouted at them,” he said. “The number of antisemitic incidents are vastly underreported,” he said, emphasizing that it’s important to report every incident, even if it seems minor.

The number of assaults against Jews worldwide has increased by 34% since the joint attack on Iran by Israel and the US, according to research by the Combat Antisemitism Movement, a non-partisan group based in Kansas devoted to fighting antisemitism.

Attacks have multiplied around the globe in recent weeks: In the Netherlands, bombs were planted at Jewish institutions; in Toronto, synagogues were sprayed with gunfire; and in Jackson, Mississippi, a synagogue was set afire by someone who announced he wanted to hurt Jews.

‘Targeted purely because I am Jewish’

Closer to home In Teaneck, police arrested two teens after they reportedly targeted Jewish worshippers on March 8, including a 19-year-old by the pellet gun attack outside of Congregation Bnai Yeshurun. According to authorities, occupants in the car first asked him whether he supported Israel or Palestine.

More: This NJ synagogue spends $650K a year on security as threats multiply

The victim of that incident − a Yeshiva University student named Netanel who asked that his last name not be used − spoke at the event. He said that on the evening of the attack, he was walking near his synagogue wearing a prominent white kippah, skullcap, and tzitzit, ritual fringes, which were visible against his black clothing.

“I was targeted purely because I am Jewish…The purpose of actions like this is clear: The perpetrators want to instill fear in us so that we feel uncomfortable living openly as Jews in our own neighborhoods. They want us to hide,” he said.

He asserted that he will never hide and never be afraid to be afraid to publicly identify himself as religious Jew.

He urged the prosecutors of their case to “make an example out of these Jew-hating assailants” for anyone else considering a similar hateful act that they will be punished “with the full severity of the law.”

Police, who did not identify the teens because they are minors, said they will be prosecuted in the Family Division of New Jersey Superior Court.

That decision led Elie Rubin of Teaneck to ask the community to push for a tougher punishment. “We have to show that the law matters. If they are old enough to drive a car and serve in the military, why can’t they be charged as adults. This was more than one bias incident. No one stopped them the first time. We need to send a message that they can’t do this.”

But before that incident, Teaneck had heated protests outside of the council chambers and in front of synagogues in which rhetoric against Jews and Israel grew nasty. There were reports that some participants said: “Gas them, you filthy Jews.”

For many Jewish Americans, the shocking uptick in antisemitic incidents have confirmed their worst fears about their safety in America. It also highlights the need to counter the extremism through more education and to take more vigorous measures to defend themselves.