With the start of the first shotgun hunting season on deer opening Saturday, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is putting out word about its HUSH program. HUSH stands for Help Us Stop Hunger as D-N-R spokesman Al Foster explains. Hunters who buy multiple deer tags but don’t want the extra venison can donate their deer to one of about 30 participating lockers statewide. The program pays for those lockers to process the deer meat and it’s then donated to soup kitchens and needy families. Foster says hunters usually will take home their first few kills, but then donate any further deer they shoot. Foster says some hunters love the sport so much they just continue hunting through the year and donate what they kill to the HUSH program. Many also want to help the hungry while thinning out the deer herd, which by virtually all accounts is vastly overpopulated statewide. Last year was the first year for HUSH and Foster says the results were better than expected. Some 16-hundred deer were donated to HUSH last year. He says the goal is to raise enough money for five-thousand deer to be taken and donated to the hungry. That would take about 300-thousand dollars. Foster says those five-thousand deer can help make one-million meals. Hunters, and many corporations, are putting money into the program. For more information, surf to “www.iowahush.com”.