Staff photos / Allie Vugrincic Dan Padula, Jr., of Weathersfield, left, and Jerry Usselman of Champion with the Trumbull County Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs unload five-pound cases of locally harvested venison Wednesday at the St. Vincent de Paul Society in Warren.

WARREN — The Trumbull County Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs donated 150 pounds of ground venison in five-pound packages to the St. Vincent de Paul Society in Warren on Wednesday, the second such donation of this season.

Last month, the federation donated approximately 150 pounds of venison to the Salvation Army in Warren.

“Obviously we hate to see anything go to waste,” said Dan Padula Jr. of Weathersfield, with the Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs. He said that St. Vincent de Paul will put the game meat to good use.

The venison was harvested this season by local hunters and donated through the Hunters Feeding the Hungry. The meat was processed at Butch’r Holl’r Deer Cutting in Hubbard, with the Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs covering the cost, Padula said.

While gun-hunting season started Monday, Padula, and avid hunter, said he prefers bows — he got an eight-point buck at the beginning of bow season. He also said he’s at the point in his life where he is most interested in introducing others to the sport.

“Right now, I’ve got a couple of new hunters that I’ve been taking out in the field, trying to get them into the sport,” Padula said.

He said for him, hunting is about family, passing the tradition and getting young people outside.

Jerry Ussleman of Champion, who joined Padula in dropping off the boxes of venison at St. Vincent de Paul on Niles Road SE, added that hunting is about knowing where and when to find animals.

“Basically it’s a challenge. It’s not like you go to the grocery store and you pick up a pack of meat,” Ussleman said.

In this case, hunting is also about giving back to the community.

Last year, the Trumbull County Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs donated about 500 pounds of venison to various local food banks and meal distributors. At the rate they’re going this year, Padula and Ussleman expect they will exceed that amount.

Lou Lepro, president of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Trumbull County, said the donated venison will be mixed with ground beef and used in meals.

Lepro said need has been increasing in the community over the five years he has been president. Recently, the soup kitchen has been serving an average 350 meals per day, four to six days per week, depending on volunteer availability, for an average of 19 days per month.

Last month, St. Vincent de Paul served approximately 6,100 meals. In September, it served more than 7,000. In the past, the monthly average was about 3,000, Lepro said.

With the increased number of meals, volunteers have had to figure out how to use the limited kitchen space as efficiently as possible. St. Vincent de Paul also adapted its meal distribution a few weeks after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now serves to-go meals to those who drive up to the front of the building. Cars sometimes back up way down the street, Lepro said.

He said the agency is grateful for donations like the one on Wednesday.

“One thing that we have found is that the community has been very supportive, both monetarily and with actual food products that they bring in,” Lepro said.

St. Vincent de Paul serves meals 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. To find out which days it is serving, call 330-369-1030.