NATCHEZ — Saturday is “Clean Your Freezer Day” before the upcoming hunting season for Miss-Lou hunters.

Hunters for the Hungry sponsors the event in which Miss-Lou hunters are encouraged to remove meat from last-year’s harvest from their freezers to donate to charity.

Sports Center, 305 Seargent S. Prentiss Drive, Natchez, is hosting the event in its parking lot from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday, said Chip Sturdivant, athletic manager of Sports Center.

Judith Campbell Jones is coordinating the effort, continuing an effort started by her late father Richard Campbell nearly 20 years ago in Baton Rouge.

“He and my mom had read about it in a magazine from another state and wanted to start that in Louisiana and Mississippi,” Judith said, adding her father was originally from Natchez and when they moved back to Natchez, they brought the program with them to the Miss-Lou.

Game wardens from both Mississippi and Louisiana will be on hand Saturday to pass out pamphlets on hunting regulations and other information, Judith said.

Any kind of game meat will be accepted, she said, as long as it in a sealed container, such as an enclosed plastic bag or other container.

Ice chests will be on hand in the parking lot and the meat will go to the Stewpot, the Children’s Home and the Guardian Shelter Catholic charities, Judith said.

Also Hunters for the Hungry has teamed up with three local meat processors and during the upcoming hunting season, hunters can ask that a portion, or all, of their meat processed at those facilities be donated to the program: Raley Processing, 177 Lee St., Ferriday, 318-719-2734; Dunn’s Processing, 105 Cloverdale Road, Natchez, 601-445-0431; and Natchez Deer Processing, 640 Liberty Road, Natchez, 601-446-7657.

“It is a wonderful ministry,” Judith said.