Kevin Kirkpatrick / Daily Register
Ryan Kropp, an employee at Pierce’s Marketplace in Portage, helps Jim Farrington load frozen turkeys into the back of a pickup truck Friday. The local chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation is donating turkeys to local food pantries this holiday season. The turkeys were purchased from Pierce’s.

The local chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation is helping less fortunate families this holiday season by donating frozen turkeys to area food pantries.

Members of the River Valley Chapter of the NWTF delivered turkeys Friday to the Pardeeville/Wyocena Community Helping Hands Pantry; the Poynette, Arlington, Dekorra Community Food Pantry; and the Southern Columbia County Food Pantry in Rio. Each pantry received 20 turkeys to distribute as they wish this holiday season.

"We give away turkeys every year," said Jim Farrington of Rio, the chapter's president. "We purchased a few more this year than we have in the past."

The turkeys were purchased by the group from Pierce's Marketplace in Portage. Chris Dufeck, co-manager of Pierce's Marketplace, said he sold them for a discounted rate. The Columbia County Sporting Alliance also donated money to this year's donations.

The donations are part of the NWTF's Turkey Hunters Care program. The program is about brightening the holidays for others, Farrington said.

The turkeys are to be used to help families complete a traditional Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.

"The clients come in (to the food pantry) for their monthly commodities, and they get the turkeys then," Farrington said.

According to its Web site, 90,800 turkeys have been donated nationwide since the Turkey Hunters Care program began in 2001. The River Valley Chapter has donated at least 40 turkeys a year since 2001, Farrington said.

The NWTF is a national nonprofit conservation organization that was founded in 1973 and has worked with wildlife agencies to restore wild turkey populations from 1.3 million wild turkeys to nearly 7 million today.

Today, NWTF's volunteers raise money and work daily to improve critical wildlife habitat, increase access to public hunting land and introduce new people to the outdoors and hunting. The NWTF's partners, sponsors and grassroots members have raised and spent more than $286 million preserving our hunting heritage and conserving nearly 14 million acres of wildlife habitat.

The River Valley chapter, which encompasses Columbia and Sauk counties and parts of Marquette County, has more than 100 members.

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