National Pet Food Drive

Sunday October 30 kicked off the start of the second annual National Pet Food Drive. The food drive lasts through November 13, 2011.

PetCo and the PetCo Foundation encourage everyone to donate a little extra food and litter this year to help dogs and cats in need during the holiday season. Individuals wanting to help can donate to the National Pet Food Drive in one of three ways. First, you can either purchase extra cat or dog food in bags or cans and/or cat litter and drop it in the cat and dog food collection bins at your local PetCo or Unleashed by PetCo store. Alternatively, you can bring any unopened bags or cans of pet food and/or boxes or bins of cat litter from home and drop them in the collection bins at your local PetCo or Unleashed by PetCo store. You can locate your local PetCo store by visiting PetCo’s website and entering your zip code into the store locater at the top of the page.

Hill’s Science Diet has agreed to match each bag of dog or cat food pound for pound up to 100,000 pounds this year as well.

Another way you can help during the pet food drive is by volunteering your time. PetCo Foundation has partnered with VolunteerMatch, a national database of volunteer opportunities. You can go here and sign up to be a cat and dog food drive volunteer. Volunteers are needed from 11a.m. to 2p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays during the food drive (October 5, 6, 12, and 13).

Finally, if you want to contribute to the pet food drive, but cannot volunteer your time or make it to your local PetCo store by November 11, you can make a virtual donation that the PetCo Foundation will give directly to a food bank that needs it. You can make a donation of $10, 25, 35, 50, 100, or 250 here.

If you cannot contribute to the National Pet Food Drive this holiday season, don’t worry, there is plenty of time to donate pet food and/or cat litter throughout the rest of the year. Each PetCo and Unleashed by PetCo store contains collection bins year-round, so you can help needy pets any time of the year. Each store partners with a local animal welfare group or food bank to ensure the collected donations go straight to cat and dog owners who need it in that store’s community.

Paul Jolly, a vice president at PetCo and executive director of the PetCo Foundation stated, “Last year’s drive provided more than 90 tons - almost 200,000 pounds - of pet food for families in need, an incredible gift leading into the holiday season and such an easy way for people to help keep pets well-nourished and with the families who love them in tough economic times. We hope to double that this year, so we’re asking the communities we serve to give a little extra and help us raise awareness for this important year-round program.”

The Pet Food Bank launched in March, 2010. Since then, PetCo and the PetCo Foundation have been able to collect and distribute nearly one million pounds of cat and dog food and cat litter to pet families in need.

If you would like to learn more about the PetCo Foundation, you may visit the organization’s website here.

Sources:

PetCo: National Food Drive　

CatChannel: National Dog and Cat Food Drive Starts This Weekend