CU Harrodsburg Students Work On Project To Feed Hungry Children
The Harrodsburg Herald/Robert Moore
Welding student Howard Smith works on fabricating a storage rack at the CU Harrodsburg Skilled Training Center.
Robert Moore
Herald Staff
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Students and staff at the Campbellsville University Harrodsburg Skilled Training Center are participating in a program that organizers hope will feed children in need.
Students are retrofitting six vehicles to carry deer carcasses donated by hunters to processing centers. They are working with Boone Brothers.
“Our goal is to feed as many children as we can,” said Jon Weece of Boone Brothers. Weece served as pastor at Southland Christian Church in Lexington for 26 years. “We’re starting it right here in Central Kentucky.”
Boone Brothers has a partnership with Kentucky Fish and Wildlife to process and package deer meat into venison jerky, Boone Bites.
Local hunters can donate carcasses to Boone Brothers at McRay Feed Store (268 Mundys Landing Road). According to the Boone Brothers website, each donated deer can provide up to 200 pieces jerky. Weece said their goal is to feed as many as 100,000 children daily.
“We’re excited to see the difference that hunters and farmers can make in Mercer County,” Weece said.
The Harrodsburg Herald/Robert Moore
Members of the CU Harrodsburg welding class are retrofitting six vehicles in a project to feed hungry children in Central Kentucky. From left: Instructor Jim Lamirande, Howard Smith, John Thomas Roberts, Michael Ridge, Jashie Martinez, Diego Martinez, Kendall Boggess, Zane Ison and Bailey Marshall.
Jim Lamirande, who has been the welding instructor at CU Harrodsburg since 2018, showed some of the racks his students have created. The racks will be used to haul up to 40 deer carcasses to processing centers.
“How I got hooked into this mess I have no idea,” joked Lamirande, who has decades of experience as a welder and an instructor, including for the Fayette County school system.
He said the project gives students an opportunity to solve challenges that will work within the constraints of the project, including time, materials and money.
“I’m trying to get them to understand how to turn two strips of steel into a finished product without much instruction,” Lamirande said.
