One of the Community Outreach Program’s latest endeavors has been a partnership with Bi-State Pet Food Pantry to deliver dog and cat food right into the community we serve. We’ve seen a growing need for pet food as a resource for community members, but it is unrealistic for GPG to deliver pet food to people, especially as our program grows. Bi-State already has a great system in place to both screen clients and distribute food fairly and efficiently. This is a natural partnership between two agencies that serve much of the same population, and also share some volunteers.
To prepare for the distribution of pet food, volunteers came together to “mix and bag” donated food. On Tuesday, seventeen volunteers worked for an hour to bag almost 2,200 pounds. We mixed the food together to make an even distribution of nutritional value, and separated into 10 and 6 pound bags to distribute based on the weight of each pet. We hold distribution dates once a month, where residents from our service area attend (by invitation) to receive a month’s supply of pet food.
February will mark our sixth month of offering this service to residents in the Metro East. Each month, we are able to help 10-15 families provide food for their pets; and we continue to add families to this list as we see the need. We are excited to see how this program grows in 2017!
If you would like to learn more about GPG’s Community Outreach Program, visit www.gatewaypets.com/community-programs.