Animal Welfare Professionals

We are a very small animal shelter and our pet food storage is in open shelving in our dog adoption room (all sealed bags). We are looking for a more sanitary way to store our food stock to better prevent infectious disease contamination/spread. We typically have  around 30 large bags of food (both cat and dog) in storage at a time, so purchasing plastic tote bins would be a pricey (and space consuming) option. Any ideas/opinions are welcome :) I've attached a photo of our current storage set up for reference. Thanks!

#OrganizationalManagement

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Kristy White
Interim Centre Manager
Lennox & Addington Ontario SPCA
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I would also like ideas on food storage.  We just started a food pantry and are storing food in a storage unit.  We have the food off the floor on pallets but I'm wondering if there is anything else we need to be doing to keep it "safe" from animals, water, etc.

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Karen Kirsch
Founder
Spayed and Aid
KY
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-05-2023 11:12 AM
From: Kristy White
Subject: food storage in shelter

We are a very small animal shelter and our pet food storage is in open shelving in our dog adoption room (all sealed bags). We are looking for a more sanitary way to store our food stock to better prevent infectious disease contamination/spread. We typically have  around 30 large bags of food (both cat and dog) in storage at a time, so purchasing plastic tote bins would be a pricey (and space consuming) option. Any ideas/opinions are welcome :) I've attached a photo of our current storage set up for reference. Thanks!

#OrganizationalManagement

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Kristy White
Interim Centre Manager
Lennox & Addington Ontario SPCA
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We fortunately have a large seperate room  with the capacity to store large quantities. We store on open shelves. We receive a variety of donated  food from different sources.We mark the month/year received on the end of the bags. We store the can food the same. We have two foot locker size totes with lids. We batch mix the  dry food so the blend  the cats and dogs get stays consistent as possible. With each new batch we mix in a few containers of the donated treats too. The donated broken bags are set aside. We try to use them in the mix first. I have been with my shelter for 20 years. it was new when I got here. Over the years I have intitiated modifications and purpose of the spaces we have to better suit our mission.These were no/cost , low cost changes. This large seperate room of was a "board room" that was used once a month. Now a very organized space for supplies, break area for crew, over flow area for spring kittens, and work area for maintenance guy. Point is... Look at your space as creatively as possible for alternatives. If you have to store food in an animal care area even a plastic shower curtain on  a curtain rod (or velcro) to cover the shelves...?

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Rochelle Hamp
Executive Director
Headwaters Animal Shelter
MN
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-05-2023 11:12 AM
From: Kristy White
Subject: food storage in shelter

We are a very small animal shelter and our pet food storage is in open shelving in our dog adoption room (all sealed bags). We are looking for a more sanitary way to store our food stock to better prevent infectious disease contamination/spread. We typically have  around 30 large bags of food (both cat and dog) in storage at a time, so purchasing plastic tote bins would be a pricey (and space consuming) option. Any ideas/opinions are welcome :) I've attached a photo of our current storage set up for reference. Thanks!

#OrganizationalManagement

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Kristy White
Interim Centre Manager
Lennox & Addington Ontario SPCA
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