Henry Co. ‘Deputies for the Hungry’ give away 7,000 pounds of meat

HENRY COUNTY, Tenn. — One local sheriff’s office has a unique way of giving back to those less fortunate in their community every year.

Hundreds of people lined up Friday morning as the Henry County Sheriff’s Office hosted their annual Deputies for the Hungry deer meat giveaway.

“It’s a good thing everybody enjoys and knows that we are safe, but yet they are helping out at the same time,” Paris resident Gail Fellers said.

“You can’t get it in a store. You can’t buy it,” deer processor Anthony Brewer said. “It’s a lot better than anything you buy in the store. People, they get old, they can’t hunt no more. They were raised on wild game, and you just can’t get it.”

People waited in line almost all the way back to the main highway in Paris for a free sack of deer and duck. But for many of these people, this is the only meat they have on the table all winter.

“It helps to put a little bit of meat in the freezer, and we can stretch the food more so that we can have better meals and not just beans or rice,” Fellers said.

Hunters donate their extra deer and duck to the sheriff’s office for the inmates to process and package, all to give back to the community.

“It was over 3,000 pounds of ground,” Brewer said. “That’s a lot of mashing, cubing, grinding, packaging. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it when you see the people. We give it away in half an hour.”

The sheriff’s office processed 203 deer this year and more than 600 ducks. They said they gave away around 7,000 pounds of meat, all for free.