Around 8 years ago, Colorado Animal Rescue partnered with Youth Entity. The kids involved decided to create a Pet Food Pantry. Maggie Niehoff, Programs Director at CARE, explains their thought process.
" How can we keep pets from coming into shelters? What resources can we offer community members? And one big one was just making sure, um, people had access to pet food. We started working with local stores. We've have community members who come directly to the shelter and drop off food that they're not gonna use anymore.
A lot of people have picky pets. Uh, we will accept that food in, and then people can come directly to our shelter and we can provide food for them. If they have special needs or amounts they need, they can call ahead of time. , what we've been doing for the past few years is working quarterly with Lift Up four times a year.
We will join them during their mobile distribution days where they give out human food and a drive-through. That started during the lockdown, and so we've been going out to each town parachute through Carbondale and handing out pet food for anybody who expresses need for that, and we've had a really good feedback.
Community members getting the food, how helpful that's been. And then we also have been working quarterly with Meals on Wheels. So we're their sole source of pet food for their volunteers to give out as they go. And that program works New Castle through Parachute. And so quarterly I will drive out with a few hundred pounds of food and they will work with their clients to assess their needs and make sure that food gets out to them.
So last year was really our biggest year yet in giving out over 9,000 pounds of food. So we're on track to do nine to 10,000 pounds this year on our website, on our events page, and on our Facebook social media page. We have a schedule of events, dates, and times and locations."
That was Maggie Niehoff, Programs Director at CARE, speaking with KDNK about how the organization has partnered with other nonprofits to distribute pet food to those in need. There’s more information at colorado animal rescue dot org. CARE will be at the Carbondale Family Block Party & Pride Parade on May 1st.
