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Greenville Non-Profit Feeding Our Four-Legged Friends

http://www.petfoodpantryenc.org/

With the holidays just around the corner, non-profits like the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina are ramping up efforts to make sure that no one goes hungry this season. However, another local organization is making sure that our four-legged friends don’t go without food either. The Pet Food Pantry of Eastern North Carolina is like a food bank for pets and is based in Greenville. The Pet Food Pantry is an all-volunteer 501 (C)(3) nonprofit organization that provides free pet food through donations to families facing financial hardship in Pitt County and surrounding areas. Mikel Peterson has more.

The Pet Food Pantry of ENC opened doors October 2013. The organization began with a single bag of food given to one of the co-founders whose dogs couldn’t eat it, so she offered it for free on Craigslist and received an overwhelming number of requests. This is when Kirsten Below, Co-founder of the Pet Food Pantry, quickly realized there were no resources for pet owners who are struggling to feed them. 

We realize sometimes that free bag of food can make the difference between keeping the pet in the home or turning it into our already overcrowded shelter."

The Pet Food Pantry feeds over 426 families a month. They get requests from all ages and races from the unemployed, to the underemployed and from many families struck with illness.

“Those affected by divorce, retirees on social security, veteran's on fixed incomes & the disabled."

Below says they will always give a one-time emergency pet food distribution to anyone in need. However, the rules are different for those who want to become part of their monthly assistance program. 

Pet owners must come in they fill out an application and bring in proof of income. Once approved,  they can then pick up food for their pet the 2nd Sunday of every month."

This approval lasts for six months, and after they can reapply again. The layout of the Pet Food Pantry in many ways is like the pet food section in a typical grocery store. Below explains:

We are in a warehouse-type setting; we are close to Rose Hill School off of Arlington Blvd., we’re in about a 900 square ft warehouse, it’s lined with metal shelving and pallets. We have a dog section, cat section , a treat section and a litter section.   It’s all sorted by kitten food, puppy food, senior food, and then we have low diet food and cans.” 

The Pet Food Pantry also hosts a series of pet health programs including a Spay and Neuter program which is a required for families to enroll in the program. 

Pet 5 “If an owner cannot afford this, we provide it at no cost to them as funding for the program is donated.  So we do have a waiting list.  This gives us a piece of mind, knowing when we donate pet food; we are not spinning our wheels and donating to anyone who is contributing to the pet overpopulation crisis and filling up our shelters.” 

Other programs include disaster assistance by supplying food, bowls, bedding, collars, leashes, and crates to those affected by disasters like fire, flooding and tornados. They offer a Community Outreach Program where the organization reaches out to underprivileged neighborhoods that need resources to care for their pets. This program in the past paid for low cost rabies clinic. The Pet Food Pantry also offers a meals-wheels program in association with the Pitt County Council on Aging to assist senior citizens who struggle to afford pet food.

We found out many seniors will forgo buying medication to buy pet food, or they are sharing their own meals with their pets.  So now we can go in and provide the pet food, and they can buy things like medicine and their own food, and they don’t have to face giving up their pets.”

Contributors come from other charitable organizations like Girls Scouts, vacation bible school, church groups, book clubs, and athletic teams. Groups associated with East Carolina University have held drives to help supply the Pet Food Pantry.

We do not get any government funding.  Currently, we have given out over 35 tons of pet food and litter since we began a year ago so our need for pet food is ongoing.  All the pet food that has come in, and the donations had been from Eastern North Carolina communities the majority of it from people doing pet food drives or individuals donating online or dropping off a bag of food."

The Pet Food Pantry has also formed community partnerships with Animal Control, Pitt County Animal Shelter, and the Leo Jenkins Cancer Center.  Below explains how these partnerships have helped the organization. 

If Animal Control sees a really good owner that’s fallen on hard times they can call us into help with food, and they don’t have to take that pet to the shelter. Same with the shelter, when they get an owner who showed up to surrender their pet because they can’t afford to feed them can now refer them to us to feed.  The cancer center is kind of really unique relationship, we got many many families that have cancer in our program, and these low-income families have lost jobs, they lost their benefits, they shouldn’t have to give up a pet just because there are no resources for food for them."

So, now program supporters can refer people who are struggling to feed their pets to the Pet Food Pantry. It's success stories like these as well as seeing the families' tears of relief and gratefulness is what keeps Below doing her job. 

We had a woman who was living in the homeless shelter with her service dog, and she rode the city bus to get food, so she could keep her dog. She had no other resources to get pet food. We have a disabled firefighter who loves his cats more than anything and says they are his reason for getting up each day. He lives on $700 a month and now we can help feed those cats."

Despite the success of the Pet Food Pantry, Below tells us they still need help spreading the word about the organization as well as pet food. 

"With the holidays, coming up people can even host a holiday pet food drive at their home at their office work parties in their churches, community groups, scouts groups, athletic clubs. Kids love involved collecting pet food so, that what we need right now."

For more information on the Pet Food Pantry, such as how to volunteer, pet food donations where to drop off pet food, pet food drives, or to schedule a speaker for meetings or groups visit www.petfoodpantryenc.org.

Jared Brumbaugh is the Assistant General Manager for Public Radio East. An Eastern North Carolina native, Jared began his professional public radio career at Public Radio East while he was a student at Craven Community College earning his degree in Electronics Engineering Technology. During his 15+ years at Public Radio East, he has served as an award-winning journalist, producer, and on-air host. When not at the station, Jared enjoys hiking, traveling, and honing his culinary skills.
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