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Has anyone worked with or been a Greater Good Ambassador for free petfood and supplies?

  • 1.  Has anyone worked with or been a Greater Good Ambassador for free petfood and supplies?

    Posted 02-08-2024 10:09 AM

    My team is looking to start a petfood bank and I came across the Greater Goods program which supplies non-profits that have >$100,000 in revenue with large amounts of food and supplies. They say the goods are all donated but the non-profits are responsible for the freight, warehouse, and program fees. It seems a little too good to be true, does anyone have experience with them? Specifically my questions are:

    1) Who determines what is sent, the quantity, and how often?

    2) How much has this program cost, are the handling fees substantial or is it still a great service?

    3) What as the process of becoming an ambassador and would it be a big ask if another group wanted to order through you? Where we'd be setting up the food bank isn't necessarily huge so we were considering asking to work with an ambassador program in a neighboring city.

    Thanks so much!

    Rachel


    #PetSupportServices*

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    Rachel Watsky
    VP
    Feral Freedom, Northern California
    OR
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  • 2.  RE: Has anyone worked with or been a Greater Good Ambassador for free petfood and supplies?

    Posted 03-01-2024 10:36 AM

    Good afternoon,

    The Greater Goods link in your post has a map of ambassadors included. Some of them have contact information that you may be able to reach out to to get an idea of the program.



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    Michelle George
    Director of Community Animal CARE
    Companions and Animals for Reform and Equity
    GA
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  • 3.  RE: Has anyone worked with or been a Greater Good Ambassador for free petfood and supplies?

    Posted 03-02-2024 03:35 AM

    We offer a pet food bank to our rural neighbors and have worked with the greater good program in our area. I do not know who determines what is sent and how to our greater good ambassador. Basically they reach out to us by email to let us know what is available and the cost. We've been offered pallets of dry and wet dog and cat foods as well as kitty litter and on occasion a mixed pallet. the cost of freight varies for us but usually it is about $150. Basically for the pallet of kitty litter it averaged out to be $1.20 per box of litter.  Our biggest issue is that our food bank is on the small size and we don't have the room to store several pallets. 



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    Lisa Burn
    Co-founder/VP
    Farmhouse Animal & Nature Sanctuary
    Myakka City, FL
    https://farmhousesanctuary.org
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  • 4.  RE: Has anyone worked with or been a Greater Good Ambassador for free petfood and supplies?

    Posted 03-02-2024 07:18 AM
    We are a small rural shelter and signed up.  When you sign up, you get to choose some preferences (IE storage capability).  Because we are rural, we had to pay a shipping fee for transport.  For us, that was $1300.  Delivery was tricky because we don't have a loading dock.  They communicate very well and this was all known to us upfront.  We got to choose whether to accept or not.  We were not told specifically what was in the shipment, but where it was from and generally what was in it.  We received an amazing amount of various brands of quality dog and cat food- cans and hard food. There was also cat litter and some bigger items (a couple of strollers and cat towers). I can't imagine the value- but I would guess many thousands of dollars.  It was fresh (not near the expiration date). We had been invited to pick up some food from another participant a few times, so we contacted smaller Humane Societies and rescues and shared what we received.  We rented a storage container for the rest of the food until we could use it.  It was a good experience, but the cost of shipping and unloading/storage in our small building keeps us from participating regularly. I think it depends on your shelter storage and help capabilities.  

    On Sat, Mar 2, 2024 at 6:35 AM Lisa Burns via Maddie's Pet Forum <Mail@maddiesfund.org> wrote:
    We offer a pet food bank to our rural neighbors and have worked with the greater good program in our area. I do not know who determines what is... -posted to the "Animal Welfare Professionals" community
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    Re: Has anyone worked with or been a Greater Good Ambassador for free petfood and supplies?
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    Mar 2, 2024 3:35 AM
    Lisa Burns

    We offer a pet food bank to our rural neighbors and have worked with the greater good program in our area. I do not know who determines what is sent and how to our greater good ambassador. Basically they reach out to us by email to let us know what is available and the cost. We've been offered pallets of dry and wet dog and cat foods as well as kitty litter and on occasion a mixed pallet. the cost of freight varies for us but usually it is about $150. Basically for the pallet of kitty litter it averaged out to be $1.20 per box of litter.  Our biggest issue is that our food bank is on the small size and we don't have the room to store several pallets. 



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    Lisa Burn
    Co-founder/VP
    Farmhouse Animal & Nature Sanctuary
    Myakka City, FL
    https://farmhousesanctuary.org
    ------------------------------
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  • 5.  RE: Has anyone worked with or been a Greater Good Ambassador for free petfood and supplies?

    Posted 03-05-2024 08:49 AM

    We are an Ambassador for GG so we pay the handling fee of $0.09/lb, due within 30 days of receiving the truck.  We are offered trucks whenever they  are in our area and we accept or decline based on our warehouse space, staffing, etc since we pay for the entire truck, then recoup the costs with the $0.15/lb paid by approved recipient groups.

    GG is always looking for more Ambassador groups so just contact them from the GOODS Program page on their site and request the info, they will send requirements, application, etc.



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    Alexandra Young
    Community outreach programs manager
    Humane Pennsylvania
    PA
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Has anyone worked with or been a Greater Good Ambassador for free petfood and supplies?

    Posted 03-06-2024 04:48 AM

    What are the requirements for being an Ambassador?



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    Karen Kirsch
    Founder
    Spayed and Aid
    KY
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Has anyone worked with or been a Greater Good Ambassador for free petfood and supplies?

    Posted 03-06-2024 05:07 AM

    Everything is on GG website here: GOODS

    Greatergood remove preview
    GOODS
    GOODS, a program of Greater Good Charities, distributes food, essential supplies, clothing, housewares, toys, and more to pets and people in need across the world.
    View this on Greatergood >

    The biggest challenge is usually having a warehouse that can accept tractor trailers and store bulk food free of pests and weather extremes. Good luck!



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    Alexandra Young
    Community outreach programs manager
    Humane Pennsylvania
    PA
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Has anyone worked with or been a Greater Good Ambassador for free petfood and supplies?

    Posted 03-06-2024 06:37 AM

    I have reached out to them to become an Ambassador,  in Eastern Maine but have not heard back.



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    Heidi Blood
    President/Founder
    Waldo County Pet Food Pantry
    ME
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Has anyone worked with or been a Greater Good Ambassador for free petfood and supplies?

    Posted 03-04-2024 08:04 AM

    I am a small scale foster based rescue - greater goods has been a LIFE SAVER!

    i get amazing pallets that i never could've imagined getting some items i have - and boy are they useful. 

    Food that was damaged (a hole ripped in the bag, taped, and sent to Greater Goods), miscellaneous items returned, and so on. While not everything is top quality - a majority of it is useable, and definitely worth the price. I drive two hours each way to visit GOODS distributions, and i always find the best things. $500 reptile enclosure, $500 Wi-Fi dog door, $1,000 worth of food for $100, crates, pens, baby gates, cat trees, cat scratchers, strollers. So many things. Petco, chewy, manufactures, etc decide what to donate - something that isn't shelf quality, but isn't trash. 

    Handling fees are ROUGHLY $0.15 a pound (compared to dog food being $1.50 a pound), there has been some that came a further distance and was more handling fees, but still came to about $200 for the entire pallet. Pallets are stacked taller than me (5 foot 6 inches)  

    Items obtained through the program must NOT be shared to outside organizations - but you can split a pallet purchase with any approved organization. 



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    Alexandria Rigg
    Director
    Zesty Misfits Fostering
    OH
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  • 10.  RE: Has anyone worked with or been a Greater Good Ambassador for free petfood and supplies?

    Posted 03-05-2025 01:41 PM

    I tried MANY times to connect with our closest ambassador about getting food and they would not even reply to us (by phone, email, through their website)! Nothing. I contact ed the goods program and they did nothing to help. I finally gave up after 5-6t ries.  



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    Mary Stevanus
    Grants Director
    To The ResQ, Inc.
    WV
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