Animal Welfare Professionals

Hi everyone,  

We were wondering if anyone has done an inventory of local food banks to see if they distribute pet food? As we know from several of the Community Conversations this year, access to pet food can make a significant difference for families struggling to make ends meet, helping them keep their beloved pets at home rather than facing the difficult decision of surrendering them.  

Does anyone have success stories working with food banks to establish pet food distribution programs? Or perhaps you've partnered with other organizations to create low-cost pet food locations in your community?  

We're particularly interested in learning how to get started, what partnerships or funding strategies have worked for others, and any challenges you've encountered along the way. Our goal is to explore ways to make pet food more accessible in our area and ensure that families and their pets can stay together through tough times.  

We'd love to hear your experiences or advice on this!  

#CommunityPartnerships*
#Conferences,WorkshopsandWebcasts

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Michael Steinfeld
Volunteer
Humane Action Pittsburgh
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We have three local food banks in our small town.  We started our Pet Food Pantry in January 2024 and at that time I surveyed all three food banks about pet food.  None of them give out pet food -- this is primarily because they are funded/stocked with food from the USDA and other government related programs.  Additionally to get food from some of these local food banks you need to be on government assistance (like SNAP) and those government assistance programs do not cover pet food.   We partnered with them earlier in the year and dropped off pet food for them to distribute to pet owners. (This required them some additional work since they don't track on their records who has a pet so they had to ask each person when they came in.)  We are primarily doing a mobile pet food distribution since we do not have a building yet to distribute from and our group is 100% volunteers who have FT jobs so we could not staff a location where people stopped by any time.  In addition to giving the food banks pet food we also held a mobile distribution at one of the food banks.  Many of the people who use the food bank are also people who need pet food so that worked out well. 

Take a look at our website to see how we operate and photos from our distributions.   https://spayedandaid.org

Good luck.

Karen

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Karen Kirsch
Founder
Spayed and Aid
KY
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-26-2024 08:33 AM
From: Michael Steinfeld
Subject: Pet food support

Hi everyone,  

We were wondering if anyone has done an inventory of local food banks to see if they distribute pet food? As we know from several of the Community Conversations this year, access to pet food can make a significant difference for families struggling to make ends meet, helping them keep their beloved pets at home rather than facing the difficult decision of surrendering them.  

Does anyone have success stories working with food banks to establish pet food distribution programs? Or perhaps you've partnered with other organizations to create low-cost pet food locations in your community?  

We're particularly interested in learning how to get started, what partnerships or funding strategies have worked for others, and any challenges you've encountered along the way. Our goal is to explore ways to make pet food more accessible in our area and ensure that families and their pets can stay together through tough times.  

We'd love to hear your experiences or advice on this!  

#CommunityPartnerships*
#Conferences,WorkshopsandWebcasts

------------------------------
Michael Steinfeld
Volunteer
Humane Action Pittsburgh
------------------------------

This is such an important topic, and it's great to see your commitment to keeping families and their pets together. Partnering with local food banks to distribute pet food can make a huge impact. One successful approach we've seen is working with pet food manufacturers or local pet stores to donate surplus or discounted food. Hosting donation drives specifically for pet supplies can also be effective, especially if you involve schools, community groups, or shelters.

Collaboration with animal welfare organizations can help establish distribution programs and raise awareness. Challenges might include securing consistent funding and storage space for supplies, but partnerships with community centers or churches can often address these. Starting small with pilot programs or seasonal drives might help gauge interest and identify the best strategies for scaling up. Wishing you success in your efforts!

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Oxford Veterinary Clinic
Oxford Veterinary Clinic
Oxford Veterinary Clinic
MS
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-26-2024 08:33 AM
From: Michael Steinfeld
Subject: Pet food support

Hi everyone,  

We were wondering if anyone has done an inventory of local food banks to see if they distribute pet food? As we know from several of the Community Conversations this year, access to pet food can make a significant difference for families struggling to make ends meet, helping them keep their beloved pets at home rather than facing the difficult decision of surrendering them.  

Does anyone have success stories working with food banks to establish pet food distribution programs? Or perhaps you've partnered with other organizations to create low-cost pet food locations in your community?  

We're particularly interested in learning how to get started, what partnerships or funding strategies have worked for others, and any challenges you've encountered along the way. Our goal is to explore ways to make pet food more accessible in our area and ensure that families and their pets can stay together through tough times.  

We'd love to hear your experiences or advice on this!  

#CommunityPartnerships*
#Conferences,WorkshopsandWebcasts

------------------------------
Michael Steinfeld
Volunteer
Humane Action Pittsburgh
------------------------------

Our local food banks have been unable to supply pet food due to location restrictions, lack of help, etc.,  but we have been running one out of our shelter for years.  In the past people could call us and leave an anonymous message or contact us through our website/social media for food to be left out.  We recently had help from a local college professor to build an outdoor structure that is accessible even when our building is closed. (I think this would be a great Eagle Scout or Girl Scout Gold Project). We operate it similar to the little free libraries that are around and there are a few in our town that have human food pantries attached. It has latches and food is stored in bins to help keep out wildlife.

As far as filling it we have bins set up at local stores to collect food donations along side the people in the community filling it. Most of the store managers have been very willing to have these in the entry and just let us know when it needs to be emptied. Some of the stores even have employees who volunteer to drop the collection off when it fills up. We also have asked several stores in our area to donate animal food that they are writing off for short codes. Some of the bigger chains have to send short codes back to corporate but it doesn't hurt to ask!

 We definitely have noticed an uptick in demand recently and a further uptick in demand now that people can pick up outside of our normal hours without calling or messaging us. If for some reason the pantry gets low we usually do a social media push for food and it usually fills fairly quickly. People in our community like to donate things to specific causes and anytime we do an education post about the pantry people come forward to donate as well.

Our food pantry has been a massive part in helping us keep animals in their homes and its great to get new ideas for suppling and reaching more people!

Caitlin

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Caitlin Will
Kennel Tech
Tri - Lakes Humane Society
NY
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-26-2024 08:33 AM
From: Michael Steinfeld
Subject: Pet food support

Hi everyone,  

We were wondering if anyone has done an inventory of local food banks to see if they distribute pet food? As we know from several of the Community Conversations this year, access to pet food can make a significant difference for families struggling to make ends meet, helping them keep their beloved pets at home rather than facing the difficult decision of surrendering them.  

Does anyone have success stories working with food banks to establish pet food distribution programs? Or perhaps you've partnered with other organizations to create low-cost pet food locations in your community?  

We're particularly interested in learning how to get started, what partnerships or funding strategies have worked for others, and any challenges you've encountered along the way. Our goal is to explore ways to make pet food more accessible in our area and ensure that families and their pets can stay together through tough times.  

We'd love to hear your experiences or advice on this!  

#CommunityPartnerships*
#Conferences,WorkshopsandWebcasts

------------------------------
Michael Steinfeld
Volunteer
Humane Action Pittsburgh
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