Photo via D.C. Central Kitchen

Wondering what the National Park Service did with the white-tailed deer that a group of sharpshooters killed in March to help thin the species’ population in Rock Creek Park? Made venison, of course. And for a a good cause.

Park Service employees dropped by D.C. Central Kitchen on Tuesday and delivered 600 pounds of ground venison to the organization, which works to feed the city’s needy residents. The meat comes from the 20 deer killed over a three-night span by marksmen on loan from the U.S. Agriculture Department, who were dispatched to control Rock Creek Park’s deer population, which in recent years has to a size that threatens the park’s flora. Before being turned into venison, the deer were tested for chronic wasting disease, an illness that affects deer but is not transmittable to humans, NPS officials said.

“We’re pleased to be able to provide venison to people in need in Washington, D.C.,” Rock Creek Park Superintendent Tara Morrison said in a news release.

Although NPS officials say the thinning of the deer population is necessary to protect Rock Creek Park’s plant life, the deer cull was not without its detractors. Groups of demonstrators gathered on park overpasses to protest the process, and even Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) chimed in, giving NPS a “Mofo of the Month” award. A federal judge also dismissed a lawsuit that sought to prevent the deer hunt after opponents could not prove that the process would cause enough harm to the species to justify canceling it.

Before March’s hunt, NPS officials estimated Rock Creek Park’s deer population was four times larger than what it should be. More culls are planned over the next three years, resuming in fall 2013. As many as 150 deer might be killed, with NPS planning to donate the meat to area food banks.