Hi - We started a Pet Food Pantry in January 2024. Our first month we 139 pets. Last year in total we fed 3,087 pets. We are now regularly feeding about 300-400 per month. Our mission is to provide free food for cats/dogs in our county for those owners who can not afford it with the hope that this help will keep the animals at home and out of area shelters.
- Do you have SOP's or guidelines in place? If so, would you mind sharing?
- Do you have a set amount of food you give out per pet? This varies based on what has been donated. Last year we had more donations then we have this year and so we gave more food out to each owner last year. This year -- If they have one or more dogs they get one bag of food. If they have one or more cats they get one bag of food. If they have a dog and a cat, they get one bag of dog and one bag of cat food. The bags we give out are in various sizes, based on what has been donated. (100% of what we give out has been donated or we buy with money that has been donated.) We try to give at least a 20 lb bag of food. We do not open food and rebag like some groups do since we are a very small charity. We started with just the two co-founders handling everything ... and both of us have jobs and families with children we are caring for. We now have about 10 volunteers who we can count on to help.
- Is your food bank at your shelter or located off premises? Ours is an independent 501(c)3 and we are not affiliated with the shelter. It is a drive-thru situation where we ask to bring our trailer to different locations in the county. We have run into difficulty with this as we get so many cars it has stopped traffic and caused problems with law enforcement. We store the food in an outdoor building that we are renting. We had previously rented a storage unit at the storage facility but had problems with the traffic interrupting other storage customers so we could not continue there. That was the Best option we've had so far because we could give out food at the same place we store it. Now we have it donated, then have to move it to the building for storage, then we have to move it again to the location we are distributing. It's way too much physical work. We desperately need funds to buy a small shed-type building and also someone to allow us to set the building up on their property so we can get back to giving food out where it is stored.
- How often do you give out food? This is dependent on what is donated. Our goal is to distribute monthly. Last year we distributed 10 months out of 12.
- Do you give both wet and dry food? We give out whatever is donated. I'd say it's 95% dry and 5% wet.
Here are our stats: https://spayedandaid.org/pet-food-pantry-stats
Here are some photos: https://spayedandaid.org/pantry-photos-1
Follow our Facebook page for info on how we market it - https://www.facebook.com/spayedandaidky/
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Karen Kirsch
Co-Founder
Spayed and Aid
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-05-2025 10:57 PM
From: CM Mishir
Subject: Pet Food Bank
Hi Bonny, thank you for the incredible work you're doing! It's amazing to hear how your food bank has grown. At our shelter, we do have basic SOPs in place, including a per-pet food allowance based on size and need, and we distribute food once a week. We offer wet and dry food, and our distribution happens on-site. I'd be happy to share our guidelines if they'd be helpful-just let me know!
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CM Mishir
Blogger
Caremypet
Los Angeles
https://www.caremypet.org/
Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2025 04:09 PM
From: Bonny Birch
Subject: Pet Food Bank
My name is Bonny and I'm the Volunteer Manager for the Palm Springs Animal Shelter in PS, CA. We have a pet food bank, and I'm curious how other shelters operate. For example:
- Do you have SOP's or guidelines in place? If so, would you mind sharing?
- Do you have a set amount of food you give out per pet?
- Is your food bank at your shelter or located off premises?
- How often do you give out food?
- Do you give both wet and dry food?
Any information you can provide would be appreciated. We started out feeding maybe 25-30 pets per month, now we're at almost 300! I was never formally trained, or given any guidelines or whatever when I took over, so I'd love to just hear from others and how you do it. Thanks!!
~Bonny
Bonny Synnestvedt-Birch
Volunteer Manager4575 E. Mesquite Avenue
Palm Springs, CA 92264 Main: 760-416-5718 ext. 119
#PetSupportServices*
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Bonny Birch
Volunteer Manager
Palm Springs Animal Shelter
Palm Springs, CA
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