PORTLAND (AP) — A nearly two-decade-old Maine program that allows hunters to donate wild game to the state’s soup kitchens and food pantries continues to grow in popularity.

The Hunters for the Hungry program has collected more than 5,000 pounds of meat already this year after collecting about 3,800 pounds last year.

The program created by the Legislature in 1995 directed game wardens to take game seized from poachers and donate it to the needy. Hunters soon started donating and now make up about half of the meat collected.

Jason Hall, director of the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry’s Emergency Food Assistance Program, told the Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/1gozSWK ) the program has grown since he started promoting it in Facebook.

Officials said the program may soon expand to accept fish caught in fishing derbies.