The phrase "without enabling" stopped me in my tracks. From my point of view, enabling is the exact point of a pet food pantry - we're enabling people to keep their pets.
We house about 150 animals, about 2/3 cats, and are located in a rural NYS country that has a 25% child poverty rate. We offer pet food bags and cans, and cat litter when we get it, at our entrance air lock. During any hour we are open, people come in to the reception desk, which is right there but out of view of the pantry area. They tell us they need food and a staff member goes out to the area with them and helps them sort through and find the kind of food they are looking for - 1 bag per species per week. (They sometimes need to wait because we're backed up - they just wait, like everybody else in the lobby at the time.) We used to take names and phone numbers and we no longer do that: we just write down the number of bags and cat/dog for each visitor. (Thank you for the idea to also track the number of pets who are helped - that's a great stat.)
Do we occasional discover that someone has grabbed a haul of food? Yes. Does that happen often? No. Do we get into conversations with folks about their circumstances and offer what slim advice we can about spay/neuter programs? Yes. Do we sometimes help the person get the ACO involved because they are struggling with the number of dropped off animals at their place or because their own failing health is a homeless-pet crisis in the making? Yes. Do we provide a compassionate face to people who need it? Yes. Is it time consuming for us? Not really.
Here's where we get our pantry food: Lots of people bring us food because their pet got finicky or aged out of a type, or more often because their pet passed and they bring food, beds, crates, bowls, etc. to us. When the pantry runs low we send out a FB request to help stock it. Food floods in and then the only problem is storage. We do get the 'in the know' person on FB declaring they know for a fact that a person is abusing the system because they see them buying tobacco products or beer. I help train the front desk volunteers, and I tell them we do not require folks to conquer their addictions before we help them feed their pets.
Every shelter's circumstance is unique (except for the under-funded and under-staffed part). We're located in a high poverty, rural region , and this open-door honor system works well for us. As always, I"m thankful to Maddie's and all of you for these conversations.
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Eudora Watson
Animal Enrichment and Volunteer Coordinator
Potsdam Humane Society Shelter
New York
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-04-2024 07:44 AM
From: molly applegate
Subject: Pet Food Pantry
Good Morning,
We have recently decided to restructure our pet food pantry program and I am searching for some advice.
We currently offer our pet food pantry one day a week for 4 hours. We want to help the community and animals, without enabling.
Would anyone be able to advise about their programs? What parameters are set? How do you walk the line between "hand-ups and hand-outs", What software is used for appointments and applications if applicable? And any other information is much appreciated! Thank you!
#AccesstoCare
#FundraisingandDevelopment
#MarketingandSocialMedia
#PetSupportServices*
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molly applegate
Volunteer Assistant
ARL-Iowa
IA
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