Poached bison meat donated to Prince Albert food bank

The Prince Albert Share-A-Meal Food Bank received nearly half a tonne of donations recently.

More than 450 kilograms of bison meat was donated to the food bank, with help from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and some post-secondary students.

TheWildernessSocietysalvagedthe meat after five bison were hunted illegally on Thanksgiving weekendoutside Prince Albert National Park.

Students from the Prince Albert campus ofSaskatchewan Polytechnic, who are part of a retail meat specialist program, volunteered to process the meat.

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"It was huge for us, basically a big shocker," said Wes Clark, executive director of the food bank.

"It's definitely the hardest thing we have to stock here."

Despite the illegal nature of how the animals were killed, theirmeat will provide thousands of meals for users of the food bank. Clark estimates it could feed up to 3000 people.

The meat is especially welcome in a place like Prince Albert, often referred to as the gateway to the north, where a significant portion of the population roughly a quarter is First Nations.

"That fits in with regular dietary needs," Clark said.

Clark said the food bank's intake of wild meat trickles in. The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations occasionally helps out with wild meat as well, Clark said.

However, hesaid the food bank hadn't received such a large donation in a while.

"We love to see the community coming together around issues like this."