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KIRKSVILLE, MISSOURI -- Gun season will begin this coming weekend, and hunters are given another great greason to catch that big buck.

The 'Share the Harvest Program,' hosted by the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Conservation Federation of Missouri, helps hunters to donate venison to the needy.

"It's a statewide program started about 10 years ago by some local hunters and it's developed into a statewide program," said Marsha Jones, Adair County Conservation Agent. "It feeds about, I don't know how many families, but usually raises over $200,000 pounds of deer to put in food pantries across Missouri every year."

As of February 2010, this program has helped to give more than $2-million pounds of deer meat to needy families, who often have no dependable source of protein in their diets.

A large truck has been set up in Kirksville's Goody's parking lot, next-door to Maurices, and across the street from Pancake City, thanks to a partnership between the Missouri Department of Conservation, Sharkey's Trucking, the National Wild Turkey Federation, Truman's Phi Kapp Tau, the Tourism Director, Christian Community Food Depot, Schuyler County Food Pantry, the La Plata County Food Pantry, and Ken Reed from the Heritage House.

"We'll open here starting Saturday morning for the hunters who come through town, they can just drop their deer off," said Jones. "The fraternity boys will be here to help them load it in. Next week we'll distribute it to the food pantries in Adair and Macon Counties, the La Plata Food Pantry, and the Adair Food Pantry, and the Schuyler County Food Pantry will also benefit from this. So it helps three counties."

To donate, hunters simply must take their deer to an approved processing plan and tell the processor how much venison they wish to donate, whether a few pounds, or the entire deer.

According to the Office of Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, thanks to a partnership this year between Governor Jay Nixon and the Missouri Department of Conservation, this year's program will have the capacity to process up to 10,000 deer, making the contribution of the deer cheaper and easier.

"Last year, we had about 40 deer dropped off here," said Jones. "It was our first year, so we're hoping for a lot more this year. The weather kind of got away from us last year and it kind of depended on hunting for everybody, so we're hoping this year that helps us with some numbers."