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Pet Food Bank Status in the Age of COVID-19

The Colorado Pet Pantry intends to remain open, knowing that our clients need ongoing assistance and that many more people will need our help in the weeks to come. Given that, we’ve implemented new procedures that will help us to keep our “doors” open. Now, more than ever, people need their pets. We need the life and light that they bring to our lives. Our goal is to keep pets in their families.

Getting pet food at a pet food bank

The pet food bank schedule is here.

The procedure will be much different than usual. You’ll drive into the parking lot and you’ll be directed where to go. The pet food bank will be “drive through”. We will be bringing a set amount of pet food and we WILL NOT be able to accommodate special requests. We will put the food into your car, and you’ll be on your way. 

These are tough times and we hope you know we’re doing everything we can to remain open so that you can get the pet food that you need. 

Thank you and good health to you.

Changed locations

April 2020: Food Bank for Larimer County pet food bank in Loveland will be on Friday, April 24th from 11am-1pm.

April 2020: Aurora Interfaith Community Services pet food bank has been moved to an earlier time, the pet food bank will be open from 11am-12:30pm.

What we need

We need volunteers at pet food banks to assist in distributing pet food. To sign up visit our Volunteer site here. Our pet food banks will have the recommended six feet between people — clients and volunteers. Volunteers will either put allotted food into people’s cars if the pet food bank is a “drive through” scenario or place on the ground before a client is called up to get their pet food if there’s not the ability to do a “drive through”. The goal is for clients to be served as fast as possible and without congregation of people.

The need for pet food donations and financial donations will be great during this time. We expect to see more clients due to the loss of income for so many in our communities. With that, we also expect that we will receive less financial support and pet food donations due to tough times. If you can help with either, we would be most grateful.

Donate pet food (please contact the location first to ensure they are open)
Donate funds

Helping Pets in Need

This Dogster article is so kind, educational and thorough – YOU should read it. Photography by Steve Hostetler Photography.

“I have clients tell me they have to make a choice between paying rent and their utilities and buying pet food,” says Eileen, who started the Denver-based nonprofit in 2013 when, as a shelter volunteer, she noticed dogs were consistently given up because their owners couldn’t afford to take care of them.

Now, Eileen and her team have grown Colorado Pet Pantry into the largest pet food bank in the country, she says, with 45 locations throughout Colorado, plus 90 donation bins at local businesses. By collecting donations, such as that opened bag of dog food that your dog refuses to eat, in 2019, the organization fed 3.7 million meals to pets.

Read full article here…

Food Bank partners with Colorado Pet Pantry in Loveland…

BY SHELLEY W IDHALM FOR THE REPORTER-HERALD

Thank you to Shelley Idhalm for this great article covering our pet food bank in Loveland. Link to full article at the end of the post.

The fourth Saturday of the month, the Food Bank for Larimer County places importance on cats and dogs.

Colorado Pet Pantry sets up a tent for two hours outside the Loveland Food Share building, 2600 N. Lincoln Ave., to hand out pet food and supplies to clients of the food bank and others needing the help.

“Our goals are definitely aligned… Whether you’re talking about food for families or food for pets, we want to make it easier for families to manage day to day,” said Paul Donnelly, communications director for the Food Bank for Larimer County, which has food pantries in Loveland and Fort Collins. “We don’t want people making a choice between getting food or medicine.”

In February, the Food Bank for Larimer County partnered with Colorado Pet Pantry, and since then, the pet pantry has served an average of 85 to 95 families per month. As of June, 360 families signed up for services for 875 pets, including 499 dogs and 376 cats.

“Everybody has leftover food from their animals for whatever reason. We want to stop that food from going into the landfills,” said Eileen Lambert, Executive Director of the Colorado Pet Pantry.

Read more…

We Are Growing!

Our first pet food bank was six years ago on June 6, 2013! So much has changed, but our goals remain the same. In 2018, Colorado Pet Pantry volunteers helped families-in-need feed 2.3 million meals (376,651 lbs) to 38,997 pets in the Denver/Boulder-metro area, Colorado Springs, Conifer, Ordway, and other parts of the state.

Just recently we added pet food banks at La Puentes Food Bank in Alamosa, Aurora Interfaith Community Services Food Bank in Aurora, Sangre De Cristos Volunteers for Community in Colorado City, The Action Center in Lakewood, and Lynn Gardens Baptist Church Food Bank in Pueblo. We are working hard to service all those-in-need throughout the State of Colorado, but we need your help. 

Learn how you can help. As of right now, we need help at ALL of our pet food banks. For a calendar view of our upcoming volunteer opportunities, visit the calendar on our website. If you would like to volunteer at a food bank or warehouse workday, visit sign up, select the type of volunteer activity you would like, then select the date you would like to volunteer.

Email eileen@coloradopetpantry.org with any questions.

Sharing Food and Supplies Hurts So Good

By Amy Hempe, Colorado Pet Pantry volunteer 

There really is such a thing as giving until it hurts (our muscles at least!).

Not that that’s a bad thing.

We are thrilled to have two incredibly generous donations this month: from UNFI and Animal Supply Company. In all, we had 40 pallets of pet food – that comes to 60,000 pounds of kibble.

Despite having sizable warehouse space and volunteers who have done some serious organizing in there, we knew that we would not be able to store all of that kibble and use it quickly enough. The donations were simply that massive.

However, we do not like to turn food away, and we knew that others might be able to take a large chunk of it. We sent the word out to our Animal Welfare Share Program partners in the area and told them that on Wednesday, May 9, we would be at the warehouse all day if they wanted to come by and grab a pallet or two. Our forklift and muscles were ready.

Some of the early arrivals included Soul Rescue and Circle 2 Rescue, both of whom arrived with their large vans. Eileen operated the forklift while volunteers Amanda, Shanna, Sarah, Amy, and Ernie loaded individual bags. The rescue vehicles were packed to the absolute (legally allowable) brim, ensuring that rescue dogs and cats they serve would be well fed.

We also happily loaded up the trucks for Happy Haven Farm & Sanctuary, Metro Denver CAT, Moms and Mutts, Team Leo, Retriever Rescue of Colorado, Forgotten Felines Rescue, Colorado Animal Care Foundation, Sugar Dogs, Arlene’s Angels, Ho-Bo Care Boxer Rescue, Duncan’s Place, Colorado Pet Food Bank (a separate organization that serves the Eastern Plains), Front Range German Shepherd Rescue, OutPaws, Hope For Animals, Steel City Alley Cats Coalition, and Cooper’s Companions. We carried hundreds of bags, loading trucks, vans, and cars past sunset. The warehouse was toasty and we might have all smelled like pet food at the end. We got dirty and sweaty, and our arms felt like limp rubber bands by the end of the day. And it was all completely worth it.

This is a huge part of what makes our mission at Colorado Pet Pantry so rewarding. When we can work with other rescues to help them accomplish their missions, then we know that we are spreading the love. We all want to help dogs and cats in need, whether they are living with families already and just need a little help with getting food, or they are in foster care awaiting their forever homes. We all share the belief that pets are family.

The Colorado Pet Pantry definitely hit the jackpot with those fabulous donations. And the best thing about that was we could share this with others.

Dogs and cats are getting fed, and we got our workout. It was a pretty great day.

Huge thanks to UNFI and Animal Supply Company, and all of our volunteers who make this work possible. Many thanks as well to Cheryl at MaxFund who has mastered the art of connection and helped us to secure these donations.

We Need You!

Want to volunteer with us at a pet food bank or event? Or email us if you would like to help in the warehouse or with administrative work.

Colorado Pet Pantry Featured on CBS Denver – Watch Now

We are honored to be featured on CBS Denver with Britt Moreno this weekend. The more people who know about us, the more pets we can help feed and keep with their families during tough financial times. The holidays are hard for many families, and if we can relieve one source of stress, we can give HOPE.

In 2017, we surpassed our original goal of feeding 11,000 dogs and cats, and instead, fed 13,333 pets for a full month! Our goal is to feed 16,000 pets in 2018, but we’ll try for as many as we can. The sky’s the limit when we have the right balance of pet food, funds, and volunteers. Please share this video with others on Facebook or Twitter and help us spread the word about the Colorado Pet Pantry!

Watch the CBS Denver video

Keeping Lucien at Home

Lucien and her family walked into the Dumb Friends League with tears in their eyes and said they needed to surrender their beloved dog. The staff member at DFL quickly realized it all came down to food. Lucien’s family was going through hard times. They had a few pets, and she was the one that needed the most food. Without money to buy pet food, let alone human food, the family decided they needed to bring her to the shelter so that another family could love her.

But Lucien already had a loving family.

The staff member at DFL handed Lucien’s family a Colorado Pet Pantry flyer, and there was a pet food bank the very next day. The family had never heard of the pet food bank, but it was the answer that solved their most heart-breaking problem.

They could now keep their family together.

Donate for Colorado Gives Day: www.coloradogives.org/pet

 

Animal Welfare Share Program write-up by Dumb Friends League

By Dumb Friends League

Many animal welfare organizations receive donations of pet supplies they don’t need, and yet they must purchase items that other organizations may have in surplus. To help “spread the wealth” among these organizations, the Colorado Pet Pantry, in partnership with the Dumb Friends League, launched the Animal Welfare Share Program this spring.

The goal of the Animal Welfare Share Program is to help participating rescues and shelters save money on crucial supplies while increasing efficiency in the use of items donated by the community.

This partnership creates a centralized location for shelters in the Denver metro area to share donated resources like pet food, medical supplies (excluding prescription drugs), collars, leashes, pet beds, crates, and other pet-related items. Participating rescues and shelters can pick up items they need and drop off surplus items for other rescues to utilize.

Read more at Dumb Friends League news

Email us about this program

American Staffordshire Terrier Dog

Colorado Expression Magazine Writes about the Colorado Pet Pantry

By award-winning writer, and President of the Dog Writers Association of America, Jen Reeder, published in Colorado Expression Magazine!

A FEW YEARS AGO, Anthony Valle’s career was booming. With a doctorate in business administration and years of experience as a successful senior project manager for numerous Fortune 500 companies, his skills were in demand. So when he was offered a lucrative contract to work in Denver, he drove from New York with his wife, young daughters and their beloved dogs to the Centennial State.

But fortune can be fickle. A week after arriving, Valle found himself unemployed due to legal wrangling between his employer and another company. Suddenly job offers dried up; aside from managing one major fiber-optic project, he hasn’t found work in his field for two years. Instead, he maintains a low-income job to help keep his family afloat until something more promising pans out. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Valle said. “We went from having a beautiful home to living in a hotel. It’s been a really hard road.”

The Valles have stayed close throughout their hardships—both with one another and with their dog, Cleo. The American Staffordshire Terrier is a registered emotional support dog who loves to snuggle, take walks and sleep in bed with Valle’s daughters every night. But due to allergies, Cleo needs special dog food, which became increasingly challenging to provide. “It would have been extremely devastating to every one of us if we would have had to give up Cleo because we couldn’t afford to take care of her,” Valle said.

Fortunately, the Colorado Pet Pantry stepped in. The nonprofit, founded in 2013, helps keeps pets in the families that love them by providing dog and cat food to people in need. The pet food bank “brought us peace of mind,” Valle said. “We’re sure that Cleo’s going to be healthy and taken care of.”

Read more
Share this image on Social Media (just copy & paste the link!)

Opening our 6th Pet Food Bank Location – Boulder 


On Dec 13, 2016 we opened our sixth month “open to the public” pet food bank location in Boulder  with our partner Harvest of Hope food bank. We also have 10 mini pet food banks where we help a target population such as the residents of low-income facilities for people with disabilities or the elderly, and organizations whose mission is to reduce the number of homeless pets. See our partner list. 

A Client’s Story


“We live month-to-month but normally everything works out somehow. This month there was just no way for us to make rent and buy dog food (which has to be one of the worst feelings in the world)! They are our family and we love them like family. I just don’t even know what we would have done without you guys and can’t thank you enough! I hope you know how important the work you do is!”

Your Furnace Tune-up Helps Feed 25 Pets for a Month!

FurFur_2 charities_2016-thumbnailApplewood Plumbing Heating & Electric is again partnering with Colorado Pet Pantry for their “Furnace Checks for Charity” program. The program was a big success last year (feeding more than 250 pets for a month!), so we hope you’ll take advantage of this opportunity and support Colorado Pet Pantry in 2016.

In preparation for the chilly winter months, Applewood is offering a 14-point furnace tune-up at a special rate of $99, a service valued at $181.67. Instead of writing a check to Applewood Plumbing Heating & Electric, however, 100% of your furnace check fee will be made directly to Colorado Pet Pantry.

This donation is tax deductible and the perfect way to support our efforts. Colorado Pet Pantry provides pet food to families to ensure pets are well taken care of and remain in a loving home. More than 5,700 pets were helped last year.

Book your furnace check with Applewood between September 1-30 to help support Colorado Pet Pantry! Call 303-232-6611.

Download the Flyer

Our Holiday Wish List

There are so many ways that you can help the Colorado Pet Pantry, from volunteering to donating. If you’re looking for ways to make a huge difference to specific areas of the pet food bank, here’s what we need:

Help Us to Buy a Van

We’ve rented and borrowed our share of vans, large trucks, and magic carpets to move more than 50,000 lbs of pet food this year. With five monthly pet food banks on the calendar, and more coming, we need to invest in a reliable van to help transport the growing amount of pet food we distribute each year. Our goal is to raise $10,000 to buy and maintain the van. This crowdfunding page is part of the LoveAnimals and Animal Assistance Foundation #ColoradoLovesPets Holiday Giving Challenge and every donation helps us to win up to $20,000 in prizes. Donate to this special fund. (Want to donate a van? Email us!)

Help Us Keep Our Warehouse

We share our amazing warehouse with 10 human food banks. Together we are the Food Exchange Resource Network (FERN) and we’ve helped more than 50,000 people (and their pets) in seven counties. Staying together affords us tremendous cost-savings especially in this very expensive time for warehouse real estate. But the warehouse needs work and we need to raise $35,000 to get this done. An investment in this fund will allow all of the food banks, including the pet pantry, to stay in this warehouse space at about 1/15th (!) of the market rate. Donate to this special fund.

Fund a New Pet Food Bank

It costs about $3840 to fund a new pet food bank location for a year which will serve about 960 pets! This special fund will be used specifically to open a new location as soon as possible. This crowdfunding page is part of the LoveAnimals and Animal Assistance Foundation #ColoradoLovesPets Holiday Giving Challenge and every donation helps us to win up to $20,000 in prizes. Donate to this special fund.