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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Access Food Project Underway
Hundreds of Pike County families will benefit from the generosity of Illinois deer hunters, local businesses and conservation organizations thanks to a new program implemented by the Access Illinois Outdoors program, operated through the Two Rivers Resource Conservation & Development Area. The Access Illinois Outdoors program has increased the public’s outdoor recreational opportunities by facilitating access to private lands since 1994. Through the AIO program, a landowner can be put in touch with prospective customers who wish to provide compensation for access to private land for outdoor recreation, ranging from hunting and fishing to bird watching and photography. Access Illinois Outdoors has recognized another need in addition to matching landowners with landusers. The growing deer population is a concern to everyone in the area, from the farmer suffering from crop degradation to the motorist dodging deer on the roads. To encourage more hunters to take a doe, Access Illinois Outdoors is creating a fund, Access Food, to pay for deer processing costs. “We want to encourage hunters, even if their own freezer is full, to take another antlerless deer and donate it to the program. Many of the non resident hunters would be willing to shoot a doe, if they were not burdened with the processing fee and the distribution of the meat,” said Brenda Middendorf, representative of the Access Illinois Outdoors program. This coincides with another need in the area which is the high volume of traffic at the local food pantries. The Two Rivers Regional Council of Public Officials and Barry Food Pantry together are feeding almost 1200 individuals a month, all of which need meat. Hunters wishing to participate may take their donated deer to either the Butcher Block in Quincy or Kabrick’s in Plainville, IL, both USDA inspected lockers which is a requirement of the local food pantries. Donors should call the lockers before deer delivery to verify processing hours and have their donation approved. The program will run through the various deer hunting seasons, ending January 11. The deer must be tagged before being taken to the processor. An untagged deer carcass will not be accepted. The two pound packages of ground meat will then be delivered to the Barry Food Pantry and the Two Rivers Regional Council of Public Officials food pantry for distribution to needy families. “At this time we only have limited funding for the deer processing fees which are $70 per deer,” said Middendorf. “We hope that other lodges and hunting related businesses are able to contribute and that agriculture related businesses see how helping to control the deer population could actually benefit their customers. All contributions are tax deductible. Every donation will be very much appreciated and will work towards controlling our deer population and feeding hungry people.” Funds from the IDNR “Sportsmen Against Hunger” program cover a portion of the processing costs with donations making up the difference. To date, contributions have been received from the Lodge at Walnut Knob, Whitetails Unlimited, and Pike County Quail Unlimited. To make a donation or for more information, pleases contact the Access Illinois Outdoors office at 1256 C West Washington, P. O. Box 87, Pittsfield, IL, 62363, 217-285-2464 or 1-888-285-2464. For More Information Contact: |
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Highlights from the Coordinator’s Report that was distributed included:
Two Rivers RC&D is assisting the Adams SWCD with the Greater Bear Creek Watershed Plan.
Two Rivers RC&D is also assisting with the La Moine River Ecosystem Partnership. Grant deadline for C-2000 applications within the watershed is Feb. 28, 2008.
The Western Illinois Sustainable Agriculture Society will host a Local Food Expo at the Quincy Mall on Feb. 9, 2008. Members will be giving out free samples, coupons, and visiting with consumers. Their annual meeting will be held at 4:30, following the Expo. WISAS will help with the Gardener’s Palette on March 1 at John Wood Community College in Quincy and help sponsor a workshop on “Putting Small Acreage to Work”. This workshop will be held on Feb. 7, from 5-9pm at the Adams County Extension office. They also plan to participate in the Locally Grown Festival this summer.
Women in the Outdoors event will be held at McCully Heritage Project in Calhoun County on May 10, 2008.
Our first loan for $35,000 was approved and will be closed soon and a second application has been approved by the Committee for partial funding. There is still approximately $50,000 available to lend.
The Orr Corporation held their annual meeting on Jan. 28, 2008 at the Orr Center. The meeting included reports from John Wood Community College, U of I Beef Program, and U of I Agronomy Program. This summer will be the 30th anniversary of the Orr Center and the Corporation Board is planning a special celebration at the Agronomy Field Day in August.
Access Illinois Outdoors
In addition to our normal activities of matching outdoor enthusiasts with private landowners for recreational experiences which improve the area’s economy and provides additional income to landowners, we have also conducted the following projects:
Access Food The Access Food project in Pike County has resulted in over 10,000 pounds of processed meat being donated to the local food pantries. This has been very much appreciated by the individuals being served by these pantries. During the firearm season, arrangements were made to have a refrigerated truck from a meat processing plant in Auburn, Illinois, available to accept donated deer. The owner of the meat processing plant is meeting with City of Pittsfield officials to discuss locating a processing plant in the Industrial Park in Pittsfield. Hopefully, this plant will be operating by next year’s deer season. The Schuyler County Access Food project is in its first year and collected over 1500 pounds.
Tours The Christmas Lodge Tour for Pike County was another huge success. Mark McDonald from Illinois Stories filmed the Pike County tour.
A Christmas Lodge & Winery tour was conducted for the first time in Brown County to include three lodges and the new winery. This tour was also extremely popular. The RC&D Board adopted a new project, a History Tour. Meetings have been held with the New Philadelphia Association, Lincoln Committee and Civil War Re-enactors to plan the History Tour. This tour will begin at the New Philadelphia site with archaeologists explaining what they are searching for, how it is processed and where is it stored. Gerald McWorter, Free Frank McWorter’s great, great, grandson will discuss family history and details of New Philadelphia. A blacksmith and other artisans will be on hand to demonstrate products of the 1830’s. During lunch, there will be an opportunity to visit and ask questions of Free Frank descendants and members of the New Philadelphia Association and view a photo exhibit “Faces of Philadelphia”. Next will be a visit to the nine Lincoln Houses. A Lincoln Museum guide dressed in period costume will conduct tours through the Shastid House. Other Lincoln Houses will be visited via the “Talking Houses”. There are more homes in this area where Lincoln actually stayed than any other area in the United States. The tour group will then visit the Civil War Re-enactment where hundreds of re-enactors will participate including Artillery, Infantry, Calvary Divisions and hospital staff. Six operating cannons will add to the furious battle. Participants will tour the camps and visit with soldiers, peddlers and President Lincoln and the First Lady. An authentic period dinner of pulled pork, potatoes, cole slaw and corn on the cob served with homemade root beer will be served and then period music and dance. Realtree contacted the Access Illinois Outdoors office for information to include on their website. They have since named Pittsfield, IL, as one of the nation’s top 5 hunting locations.
A new website, www.centralillinoishunting.com has been developed by the Schuyler Economic Development Corporation through a grant obtained by Carol Montague and contains information about Access Illinois Outdoors.
The American Outdoorsman TV show continues to air the program they taped on Access Illinois Outdoors and this has resulted in an increased interest in visiting Illinois. It aired several times in the months of October and November and will air again in January on the Men's Outdoor Recreation Channel. Another TV show was taped for Outdoor South and the Fox Channels. This included not only information about visiting Illinois to hunt but also information on the Access Food program.
Send mail to
bmiddendorf@2riversrcd.org with
questions or comments about this web site.
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