Animal Welfare Professionals

Hello, 

We are transitioning to a food pantry.  Prior, we have delivered food.  This past year, we have struggled with sustainability.  We gave out 107,000 pounds of food and drover over 15k miles.  This is for a program that is supposed to be solely dependent on donations.   Due to the struggles, we are transitioning to a food pantry and working to connect home bound people with organizations that can deliver.   

My questions for others running a pick up only food pantry: 

How much food do you give? Is it per animal or a set amount per family regardless of the number of animals?  When we were delivering, we could confirm the number of animals.  Do you attempt to do this for pickups? 

How often do you allow pickups? 

We want to be as barrier free as we can.  Do you have any criteria?

#PetSupportServices*

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Renee Russell
Tulsa SPCA
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Hi! We have a pick up pantry and give out food on a monthly basis (unless they only need some to cover until their next paycheck). We ask for information for each pet (name, age, weight, neuter status) so we can see if they add pets or offer s/n assistance or tailor food to age/weight. We try to counsel them as nicely as possible that if they add pets we cannot keep supporting that behavior as it is not sustainable.  If it is a litter from unneutered animals, we often offer to take mom and the litter until everyone is weaned, return mom (spayed) and find homes for the babies.  We also ask for their town as we track demographics to ask the towns for monetary support each year based on how many constituents we support.  We also have some supplies so may ask if they require anything else or need other assistance we may be able to provide.  

We have forms on our website, paper forms on site and they can also fill one out over the phone if they call in.  

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Mindy Wulf
Executive Director
SPCA of Hancock County
ME
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We attempted to keep data, but with the constant flow of people coming in our doors it was creating a bottleneck and sometimes discouraging people as they didn't want to provide information.

We decided to be truly barrier free and limited our food distribution to one gallon zip lock bag of cat food and one gallon zip lock bag of dog food per person per day with no id checks, no questions asked.

We have repeat clients daily and some who are just waiting for that next paycheck. We have also had those who then pay it forward and donate back to us. 

We add handouts with the food for free vaccination clinics, spay/neuter resources and other information and hope that they take advantage of what they need.

Statistically we don't have "data" to apply for grants, but the donations we get are as a result of our community acknowledging that this food pantry is a win for the animals within our City.  Costco, PetSmart, private practice Vets, family owned businesses and citizens all donate to our food pantry. When we run out of food we post for donations and they come.

I am not disregarding the importance of keeping data, but with limited staff to track this and the huge demand, it became more pertinent to ensure that no animals were going hungry and by promoting as such our pet food pantry has sustained itself - so far.

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Catriona Cottle
Animal Services Supervisor
Antioch Animal Services
CA
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Hi!

Our model is somewhere in between the two previously described. We have a helpline where folks can call to get info on resources. They can also reach out via email or come to our monthly food pantry. If someone reaches out and can't make it to the pantry we will set up individual pick ups from a drop box at our Outreach Office. If they are homebound and fit our delivery criteria I place them on our Outreach team's service dashboard.  We are a non-profit with a municipal contract so we are only allowed to assist within the county we service. We also have limits on how frequently folks can get food, no more than every 2 weeks. 

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Elsa Enstrom
Helpline Coordinator
Asheville Humane Society
NC
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Hi Renee, happy to share what we do at East Bay SPCA:

For our monthly pantry, we have households register via Calendly and mark if they will be picking up for a dog, cat, or both. Regardless of size of number of pets, we give 15-lbs of dry dog food and 5-lbs of dry cat food. This makes it easy to export the data via an excel spreadsheet.

For pet food walk ups, which are always welcome,  we have a laminated paper log on top of our food storage bin. Anytime a staff member grabs a bag of food for someone who, they put a tally on the tracker, indicating they gave out a 5-lb bag. Our pantry is technically for residents of Alameda County, where we're located, but we will never turn anyone away who needs food for their pet. 

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Regan Crisp
Communications Specialist
East Bay SPCA
CA
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Hi Renee,

Transitioning from delivery to pickup after distributing that much food and driving that many miles sounds like a major operational change. I think one of the most important goals would be keeping the process low-barrier while also giving volunteers a simple and consistent rule they can follow.

Through our food bank work at Hazel's House Animal Rescue, the practical information we need at check-in is when the household last received assistance, how many pets are in the household, what was distributed, and whether there is a special circumstance that needs staff judgment.

I developed Pet Pantry Pro with that type of workflow in mind. A pantry can set the required number of days between completed visits. When the client is found, the software shows the volunteer whether the household is eligible under that rule, along with previous visits, pet counts, and notes. The pantry still controls its policy and can use discretion when needed. The software is there to apply the organization's rule consistently, not decide whether someone deserves assistance.

It also records the food and litter distributed and generates reports without requiring a separate tallying process. We have used it during live Hazel's House food bank operations, and it worked very smoothly.

Full transparency, I created it:

https://www.PetPantryPro.com

I would be interested to hear whether you ultimately decide on a fixed amount per household or an amount based on the number and size of pets.

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Michael Clarey
Board Member
Hazel's House Animal Rescue
OR
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