Two Cairngorms farmers providing venison to schools and community kitchens

Following on from our report in January regarding a new initiative from two estates on the islands of Islay and Jura supplying venison for school meals, the Cairngorms National Park have recently announced a new partnership with two Scottish farmers to donate wild venison to local communities.

Knockbarry Farm, by Pitlochry, have set up a social enterprise called Fair Feast, with the tagline ‘sales matched in food bank donations’. This enterprise donates venison products to local community foodbanks and schools, whilst selling these products to the wider community. The farm has an on-site butchery and larder to take carcasses from deer stalking operations on the farm. This initiative has been funded by a grant from the Cairngorms 2030 programme supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Glenkilrie farm, near Blairgowrie, runs the Glenkilrie Larder and Cook School and has already been working on educating school groups in how to prepare meals using venison. In the longer term, they also aim to provide venison products to local schools. The farm has already donated venison to secondary schools for their home economics classes and hope that this will introduce the next generation of customers to venison as a delicious and highly nutritious meat product.

We also recently reported on a £119k pilot fund, secured by NatureScot and the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society (SAOS). The project will see SAOS working alongside the Lowland Deer Network Scotland and Scottish Venison and will provide funding of up to 50% of capital costs to successful applicants towards the installation of larders and related equipment.

The Scottish Countryside Alliance welcomes projects such as these, which support and advance the venison market within Scotland. We repeatedly call on the government to increase support in this industry and assist deer stalkers and land managers in operations to control deer numbers nationwide, as they are required to do.

We will wait to see what legislative changes the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill will bring to deer management, as this Bill passes through the parliamentary stages. An update on this Bill will follow, but in the meantime, we look forward to hearing about further Scotland-wide deer initiatives to support this sector over the coming months as we keep up the pressure on those who create the legislation and hold the purse strings.