How to feed the hungry this Christmas? Let them eat pheasant "There are a lot of people in Plymouth below the poverty line and game is good cheap food," he explains. I came across the work of the Devon and Cornwall Food Association and learnt about what they were doing. Around 40 brace of birds are now donated each week. The association, which was founded in 2011, aims to prevent in-date food from going to waste. It also helps to eliminate food poverty across the South West. "We saw a need to help feed the disadvantaged in Plymouth and the surrounding region," says its secretary, Geoffrey Read. As the organisation grows further, so does the public's awareness about waste and poverty. Stories about waste pheasants first began to circulate in the early years of the last decade. In those pre-recession times, game shooting was fashionably popular with bankers and hedge fund managers, and commercial shoots increased in size to cope with the demand. As an editorial in Country Life magazine stated in February 2001: "Many large estates now shoot for four or even five days a week from November to the end of January, killing as many as 2,000 birds a week... Many people who shoot even decline to take home their traditional brace of birds." The shooting community categorically denied all the stories at the time, and continues to do so today, pointing out that there has never been any photographic evidence. "There is no truth in surplus pheasants being buried," says Simon Clarke of the BASC. The only time I heard of it was when a game cart had been stolen and the birds dumped. Either way, Forrest's initiative, full of apparent seasonal goodwill, has failed to convince everyone. Kit Davidson is shooting consultant for Animal Aid, the animal rights group, which has long campaigned against game shooting. "Using this scheme as an outlet for unwanted shot game might ease the consciences of those involved and generate some publicity, but game bird production and shooting remains a cruel and wasteful activity," he says. Not true, says Forrest, who insists that the donated pheasants are not surplus: "We aren't getting rid of birds that would be chucked away. They are birds that would be sold. This is about getting good-quality, low-fat meat into homes where there is a need for it. Let's just hope somebody provides the bread sauce. Perfect Roast Pheasant recipe