Animal Welfare Professionals

Hello everyone,

My name is Jenny and I run a dog rescue up in Maine.

I have a great opportunity to get lots of food at heavily discounted rates and am planning to start a pet food bank.

I live in Piscataquis county which is rural and has a high poverty rate, however, since it is a rural setting, the poverty is not "in your face" and I feel many people choose the "what I can't see, isn't a problem" attitude. So, I am hoping to change that.

I am wanting to get everything set up and then reach out for volunteers, and was wondering if anyone had any standard paperwork that they could share. As much as I want to help as many people as possible, I do not want people to take advantage - any suggestions on requirements and such.

Also - is there a "standard" amount of food per animal - I know everything depends on the quality, activity and such - but wondered if there was an average - small, medium, large, X-large = so many cups or pounds of food for a week / month - and the same with cats.

Any information, advice, shared forms/paperwork would be greatly appreciated and of course will save me a lot of time researching and I am a big believer in following a working system.

Thank you and keep up the good work everyone.



#PetSupportServices*

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Jenny Cope
President/Founder
Give a Dog a Home, German Shepherd Dog Rescue
501c3 Non- Profit Corp, Tax ID/EIN 27-5241306
State of Maine Shelter/Rescue Licence # F1463
State of Maine Registered Charity: CO11334
https://giveadogahome.rescuegroups.org/
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Hi Jenny- so we have general Pet Resource Center flyers we distribute (see attached) and have info on our website. The food pantry is just one of the programs we offer, so we keep it all together in terms of marketing.

We don't have rules or qualifying requirements. The only stipulation we have is that we will only deliver if someone is home-bound/ no access to transportation, and we do that once a week on Fridays. Otherwise they need to pick-up. 

In terms of how much we give out, it obviously depends on how many pets they have and what size bags we have in stock, but in general, my team says we try to give one bag per dog, and the bag size depends on the size of the pet (usually a 15lb bag for small dogs and a 30-35 lb bag for big dogs). If they have more than 5 dogs we try to limit it to 3 bags, but we will use the largest bags we have for that.  For up to 5 cats, we usually do one larger bag, but again it really depends what we've been donated and what we have in our pantry supply.

let me know if you have any other questions!

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Alexis Pugh
Director, Memphis Animal Services
www.memphisanimalservices.com

Organizational Management
& Pet Support Services Specialist
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This is great information, thank you so much for being so detailed it is most definitely helpful.

Do you re-bag the food, or do you just hand it out in the actual product bags?

Can anyone just come up and tell you what they need, or do you take their information?

Thanks again,


------------------------------
Jenny Cope
President/Founder
Give a Dog a Home, German Shepherd Dog Rescue
501c3 Non- Profit Corp, Tax ID/EIN 27-5241306
State of Maine Shelter/Rescue Licence # F1463
State of Maine Registered Charity: CO11334
https://giveadogahome.rescuegroups.org/
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 08-20-2021 08:56 AM
From: Alexis Pugh
Subject: Pet Food Bank

Hi Jenny- so we have general Pet Resource Center flyers we distribute (see attached) and have info on our website. The food pantry is just one of the programs we offer, so we keep it all together in terms of marketing.

We don't have rules or qualifying requirements. The only stipulation we have is that we will only deliver if someone is home-bound/ no access to transportation, and we do that once a week on Fridays. Otherwise they need to pick-up. 

In terms of how much we give out, it obviously depends on how many pets they have and what size bags we have in stock, but in general, my team says we try to give one bag per dog, and the bag size depends on the size of the pet (usually a 15lb bag for small dogs and a 30-35 lb bag for big dogs). If they have more than 5 dogs we try to limit it to 3 bags, but we will use the largest bags we have for that.  For up to 5 cats, we usually do one larger bag, but again it really depends what we've been donated and what we have in our pantry supply.

let me know if you have any other questions!

------------------------------
Alexis Pugh
Director, Memphis Animal Services
www.memphisanimalservices.com

Organizational Management
& Pet Support Services Specialist
------------------------------

Hey Jenny- so we give out food in its original packaging.

In terms of requests, all requests come through our Pet Resource Center (by online form, phone or email) and then our staff calls them to schedule a pick-up, or if they are home-bound, a delivery (which we do once a week).

If someone just shows up , we will certainly see what's going on and help them.

------------------------------
Alexis Pugh
Director, Memphis Animal Services
www.memphisanimalservices.com

Organizational Management
& Pet Support Services Specialist
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 08-26-2021 02:21 PM
From: Jenny Cope
Subject: Pet Food Bank

This is great information, thank you so much for being so detailed it is most definitely helpful.

Do you re-bag the food, or do you just hand it out in the actual product bags?

Can anyone just come up and tell you what they need, or do you take their information?

Thanks again,


------------------------------
Jenny Cope
President/Founder
Give a Dog a Home, German Shepherd Dog Rescue
501c3 Non- Profit Corp, Tax ID/EIN 27-5241306
State of Maine Shelter/Rescue Licence # F1463
State of Maine Registered Charity: CO11334
https://giveadogahome.rescuegroups.org/
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 08-20-2021 08:56 AM
From: Alexis Pugh
Subject: Pet Food Bank

Hi Jenny- so we have general Pet Resource Center flyers we distribute (see attached) and have info on our website. The food pantry is just one of the programs we offer, so we keep it all together in terms of marketing.

We don't have rules or qualifying requirements. The only stipulation we have is that we will only deliver if someone is home-bound/ no access to transportation, and we do that once a week on Fridays. Otherwise they need to pick-up. 

In terms of how much we give out, it obviously depends on how many pets they have and what size bags we have in stock, but in general, my team says we try to give one bag per dog, and the bag size depends on the size of the pet (usually a 15lb bag for small dogs and a 30-35 lb bag for big dogs). If they have more than 5 dogs we try to limit it to 3 bags, but we will use the largest bags we have for that.  For up to 5 cats, we usually do one larger bag, but again it really depends what we've been donated and what we have in our pantry supply.

let me know if you have any other questions!

------------------------------
Alexis Pugh
Director, Memphis Animal Services
www.memphisanimalservices.com

Organizational Management
& Pet Support Services Specialist

If the opportunity arises, distributing cat litter with food is always so appreciated at the pet food banks I've worked with. I've always seen it dispersed as one bag/box per 1-3 cats.

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Monica Frenden
American Pets Alive
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Hi Jenny, 

we Started a food bank due to Covid. We do keep a list of people who are receiving food from the food bank. We have them call when they need food and we make arrangements for them to pick up. In rare cases when a person is elderly or disabled and homebound we can make arrangements for a delivery.  I like your idea of a stocked shelf with self serve. We will sometimes rebag if we only have large bags available and it's a person with just a small dog. No sense giving 30 pounds of food to someone with a 8 pound dog. 

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Renee Milner
Facebook page volunteer
Animal shelter alliance of Rhea
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