Animal Welfare Professionals

Hi all,

At Orange County Animal Allies, we run "No Empty Bowls", our pet food pantry program that helps keep pets in their homes during hard times.

We're considering a new pilot: 2-3 outdoor "Little Free Pet Food Pantry" stations, similar in spirit to Little Free Libraries, placed in the community for 24/7 self-serve access to pet food.

Before we move forward, we'd love to learn from anyone who has tried something similar:

• General thoughts? Would this be helpful?
• How do you manage restocking and who's responsible for it (staff, volunteers, community members)?
• What locations might work best (parks, laundromats, community centers, etc.) and how did you choose them?

We want to make sure this genuinely fills a gap rather than becoming a maintenance headache with little impact, so any thoughts and lessons learned (including what didn't work) would be hugely helpful. Here's a picture of it in action from another animal welfare organization that I found online.

Thank you in advance!

#CommunityCatManagement
#PetSupportServices*

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Peter Chang
Executive Director
OC Animal Allies
CA
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We have several "Blessing Boxes" around town that were put up by either our local Lion's Club or various churches. These boxes are filled with people food, supplies, etc. Within the last year we started stocking them with pet food and have really seen a need for that. In June, we stocked over 200 lbs of dry pet food and over 130 cans of pet food. This is in addition to the pet pantry we have at the facility.  Our thought behind stocking these boxes was that some people may need help but are afraid to ask... we don't judge people if they need help but realize that some just might not feel comfortable asking and we still want to reach those people. 

We typically have volunteers stock these boxes for us ( a total of 8 boxes throughout town) depending on what we have and how often they can go. If we don't have any volunteers available, we have had staff stock them on someone's way home or while out running errands. 

The locations of these boxes but the majority are at churches or near low income apartment complexes.  I think parks, laundromats, etc would also be good places as well.  We have also considered making one to put outside our shelter so that people could access it when we aren't opened. 

Hope that helps and good luck on your project! 

Thank you so much Jodie. Would you be willing to share some pictures of your Blessing Boxes?