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On the outskirts of Savannah, Georgia, a line of large chest coolers waits outside Wise Brothers Processing. Inside them, skinned deer lie packed in ice, ready to be cut into cubes, ground up, or made into sausage, depending on the customer’s order. Once ready, the meat is wrapped and placed in the freezer for the hunters to take back home.
This is all pretty standard for deer hunters, the way animals they shoot become meat to feed their families. But a lot of this meat isn’t going back to the hunters who brought it — it’s bound for a soup kitchen in the heart of Savannah.
“The charity that we use, they feed 250-plus people, three times a day,” said Debra Wise, who runs the business along with the rest of her family. They’ve sent 500 pounds of ground venison to Old Savannah City Mission so far this year, she said.
The Wises are taking part in the Georgia Wildlife Federation’s Hunters... Read more
