Hello Cañon City Pet Food Bank Clients,
We are writing to notify you that the July, August and September pet food banks have been rescheduled.
All of these pet food banks will be at St Michael’s Catholic Church, 1016 Mystic Ave in Cañon City from 10AM to 1PM.
Thank you,
Colorado Pet Pantry
Robert and Kloe are “two peas in a pod.” They’re never apart. Kloe is Robert’s Service Companion and “his best friend, his lifeline.”
Robert had a stroke at the young age of 23, which caused partial paralysis, amongst other health issues. He has lived in nursing homes and been involved in treatment facilities since his stroke, 25 years ago. A few years ago, his social worker and case manager at one of his homes set him up with Volunteers of America (VOA).
Living in a VOA apartment complex gives him the opportunity to live self-sufficiently, and the ability to have a service companion, Kloe.
VOA is one of Colorado Pet Pantry’s Mini Pet Food Banks. These are organizations or remote locations that receive pet food from us to distribute directly to their clients. This is how Robert receives pet food to help feed Kloe. He receives very limited Social Security benefits, and for the most part, dog food is not in his budget.
He is extremely grateful to Colorado Pet Pantry for the donations that Kloe and the other pets at VOA receive. “If I didn’t receive pet food from you guys, Kloe would be eating table scraps, like she used to eat,” Robert shares. Colorado Pet Pantry currently serves 74 Mini Pet Food Banks across Colorado.
We partner with organizations that support low-income families, elderly, homeless, people with disabilities and other groups in-need, to help reach clients and regions we may not otherwise have the resources to access with our monthly pet food banks. In addition to VOA, other organizations we work with include Mercy Housing, Nourish Meals On Wheels, Salvation Army, Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, and various Animal Welfare Organizations.
We are on track to serve 150,000 pets this year, ensuring people facing hardship can keep their beloved companions healthy and fed, and most importantly, at home with their families.
When faced with a dire food shortage in our warehouse at the start of 2024, you answered our calls for help. During the first quarter, we received an incredible influx of in-kind donations from our compassionate community that provided crucial resources for pets and their people. From office and neighborhood pet food drives, to pallets from distributors, and brands, these donations sustained us through the winter months.
We transitioned our Emergency Program into a Client Navigation Team model, reducing stress on our staff and volunteers, while efficiently assisting those in need. This new model equips us with more tools to address the demand for pet food, with emergency food pickup being an option, but not the first solution.
We implemented new policies to extend our reach, meet the increasing need, and make the most of our plateauing pet food supply. By changing the frequency with which clients can receive food, we are able to help more people and pets in need of assistance, keeping those pets out of shelters and aligning more closely with our mission, to temporarily feed Colorado pets.
Gabriel, an outgoing yet calm feline companion played a vital role in helping Donny navigate life’s most challenging hurdles with unwavering affection. When a sudden medical crisis left them both without a home, Donny faced the heartbreaking prospect of parting ways with his beloved friend.
Colorado Pet Pantry stepped in, offering a lifeline of support. Providing essential supplies and resources for Gabriel, your support gave this duo the opportunity to remain together, family forever.
Your support can help individuals like Donny and pets like Gabriel stay united during times of crisis. Donate today to Colorado Pet Pantry and help us continue our mission of keeping families and their beloved pets together through life’s toughest challenges.
“The Colorado Pet Pantry has helped Gabriel and me by providing food, treats, toys, a cat condo, which he loves, and a litter box. If it were not for the pantry, I would have struggled.”
~ Donny
Your continued generosity and support empower us to make a tangible difference in the lives of pets and their families across Colorado. Together, we’re building a stronger, healthier, and more compassionate community. Thank you for being a part of this important work.
With heartfelt gratitude,
Eileen Lambert
Executive Director
Meredith Allin
Director of Development
Each year, Canine Colorado Magazine and DelaFoto Portraits team up with one lucky animal welfare organization in an effort to raise funds for their cause. This year, DelaFoto Portraits is supporting Colorado Pet Pantry by featuring black dogs for the 5th Edition of Canine Colorado Magazine.
HOW IT WORKS:
Anyone with a black dog (50% of the coat or more must be black) goes to the Canine Colorado’s website, and books a session with DelaFoto Portraits at their Denver-based studio.
For $250 your pet will receive:
This $250 fee is 100% a donation to Colorado Pet Pantry, and will go to provide 50 dogs or cats with a 30-day supply of pet food.
THE MAGAZINE:
This magazine is a 50+ page tribute to man’s best friend. It is printed on thick paper stock, has wonderful stories about many of the dogs inside, and is solely created to support animal-based nonprofit organizations. Only one magazine is produced each year, and makes a wonderful gift for your family and friends during the holidays. For each magazine sold, Colorado Pet Pantry will receive an additional $15 donation from Canine Colorado.
WHY BLACK DOGS:
Black dog syndrome is a phenomenon in pet adoption in which black dogs are ignored in favor of light-colored ones. Observed by shelters and rescue groups across the world, this is an issue negatively affecting the adoption rates of black dogs. By shining a light on this (literally a studio photography light) we hope to bring awareness to this issue and showcase how beautiful these dogs really are.
Gabriel, an outgoing yet calm feline companion played a vital role in helping Donny navigate life’s most challenging hurdles with unwavering affection.
When a sudden medical crisis left them both without a home, Donny faced the heartbreaking prospect of parting ways with his beloved friend. Colorado Pet Pantry stepped in, offering a lifeline of support. Providing essential supplies and resources for Gabriel, they ensured this duo could remain together, family forever.
“The Colorado Pet Pantry has helped Gabriel and me by providing food, treats, toys, a cat condo, which he loves, and a litter box. If it were not for the pantry, I would have struggled.”
~ Donny
Your support can help individuals like Donny and pets like Gabriel stay united during times of crisis. Donate today to Colorado Pet Pantry and help us continue our mission of keeping families and their beloved pets together through life’s toughest challenges.
What started in 2013 as a Denver-based small nonprofit, supplying pet food to 858 pets per year, has grown into a statewide organization, with over 100 locations, distributing food to over 150,000 pets a year.
Over the last 11 years, Colorado Pet Pantry experienced exponential growth. Donations and need grew hand-in-hand, allowing us to maximize our impact.
However, after the Covid shutdown took hold on pet food manufacturing plants, and large-scale emergency donations ceased, the world suddenly faced an extensive, long-term pet food shortage. See video here about how we handled the pet food shortage. Because of this, Colorado Pet Pantry had to switch gears and focus on stabilization, rather than growth. Now, after two years of established commitment to our communities, we are excited to announce that we have had the ability and opportunity to open a new pet food pantry location in Cortez, CO.
For several years, we have been serving the community of Southwest Colorado, helping people feed and keep their pets, including “open to the public” locations in Mancos, Dove Creek, and Bayfield, as well as “mini pet food pantries” in Durango, Pagosa Springs, and the Ute Mountain Reservation of Towoac.
We held our first Cortez monthly pet food pantry in partnership with Good Samaritan’s Food Pantry on May 31, 2024. The opening of the new location in partnership with Good Sam’s was done with financial support from the LOR Foundation.
After years of no expansion, Colorado Pet Pantry wanted to take the first opportunity to open a pantry in Cortez and help the many guests in this area who need assistance.
Thanks to support from a dedicated core group of volunteers, who travel the area to host the pet food pantries, we were able to assist about 54 families and 228 pets on our first day with about 2,000 pounds of pet food.
We were even surprised by a visit from our prior program manager Suzanne (pictured here with another volunteer) who helped develop the assistance program in this area, before passing the torch to our new Program Manager Kim, who joined our team in January. Kim is making significant strides to help more people and pets in the area.
We will be at this location on the last Friday of every month from 12PM to 2PM. Clients are eligible to receive pet food once out of every three months. Our full calendar is here.
Client Spotlight: Meet Wilder Lee. Wilder was one of the rare kitties to visit us “in-purr-son”. He has a disease called Cerebral Hypoplasia. His mom had Feline Leukemia when he was in utero. This disease will likely mean he can never walk and will continue to be 100% dependent on his person for food, water, nurturing, and urination. See Wilder’s Video here.
Due to the high cost of raising a pet with special needs, his person was grateful to pick up pet food at the pantry to assist with keeping Wilder as healthy as possible.
Additional Services: Many guests at this pantry had questions about spay and neuter options in the area. We offer a resource guide with several options (download Southwest Colorado resource PDF), including a mobile spay/neuter service that will host a clinic in September called Bergen Spay Neuter. More info here.
Thank you to everyone who made this new location possible, and Happy 11 Year Birthday to Colorado Pet Pantry. We are very excited to help pet families in the town of Cortez, and to have the ability to add this new location.
To volunteer with us, please visit this link. Colorado Pet Pantry is always grateful and in need of donations to make this work possible. We are able to feed a dog or cat for a full 30 days with just a $5 donation.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 5/30/24
Cortez, CO – Colorado Pet Pantry is hosting a new monthly pet food bank serving the Cortez area. The first pet food distribution event will take place on May 31, 2024 and will continue on the last Friday of every month from 12 – 2 PM.
This pet food bank is in partnership with Good Sam’s Food Pantry and is supported by the LOR Foundation.
The addition of the pet food bank in Cortez comes after recent expansion in the Southwest area of Colorado including Dove Creek, Grand Junction, Mancos, and the Towaoc Reservation in the Four Corners region.
“We are thrilled to bring these much-needed services to the Cortez area,” said Eileen Lambert, Executive Director of the Colorado Pet Pantry. “The addition of this pet food bank has been years in the making, and we are grateful to our partners and volunteers who make it all possible. Because of our monthly pet food banks, we’ve been able to keep tens of thousands of pets fed, housed with their loving families, and out of shelters.”
Anyone needing assistance feeding their pets should visit coloradopetpantry.org and click “get help” to learn more.
Volunteers and donations are needed in the area for both the food bank and the warehouse. Interested persons should visit coloradopetpantry.org to learn more about how to support the mission.
About Colorado Pet Pantry
The Colorado Pet Pantry temporarily feeds Colorado pets, allowing families to increase their ability to care for pets with the goal of keeping them out of shelters and with their families. In the past 12 months, the Colorado Pet Pantry has served 9 million meals to hungry pets. The organization has 100 monthly pet food banks. The Colorado Pet Pantry is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and contributions are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Our EIN is 45-4210185.
More info: coloradopetpantry.org
About the LOR Foundation
LOR works with rural communities in the Mountain West to enhance livability and prosperity while preserving the character that makes each community unique.
More info: lorfoundation.org
About Good Sam’s Food Pantry
The Good Samaritan Center is a food pantry and emerging community food center in Cortez, CO. We provide food assistance to anyone who needs it through market-style shopping for supplementary groceries and opportunities to grow food for personal use. Households can shop for groceries up to twice per month. Our Goals for 2024 include increasing the quantity and variety of locally produced food we distribute and working with members and partners to continue programs that educate, empower and nourish us as a community.
More info: goodsamscortez.org
Whether it’s from a donation of pet food, volunteer time, live auction items for our fundraisers, or multiple grants to our organization, one thing is clear: Kroenke Sports Charities takes the livelihood of Colorado pet families seriously.
Over the years Kroenke Sports Charities has been overwhelmingly generous to Colorado Pet Pantry. Each year, they send Bernie, the Avalanche Mascot to one of our pet food pantries to help distribute pet food.
A delight to children and pets, Bernie graciously helps distribute thousands of pounds of kibble to local pet families, helping to keep their pets in their homes and out of shelters.
With the help of Kroenke Sports Charities, Colorado Pet Pantry has distributed over 35 million meals in the last 11 years.
Everything we do, we do with help, and Kroenke Sports Charities has consistently shown up for us, year after year, as a local leader in community support.
Colorado Pet Pantry relies on monthly contributions from large-scale pet food brands to sustain our over 100 monthly pet food pantries. Year after year, Pet Food Experts has heard our calls, and in the last 11 years, donated over 272,000 pounds of pet food to our organization.
Every month, Pet Food Experts donates almost 20 pallets of food to Colorado Pet Pantry, helping over thousands of dogs and cats stay with their families.
Without donors like this, Colorado Pet Pantry would not be able to operate on the scale at which we do. So please join us in saying “THANK YOU” to Pet Food Experts for their incredible generosity and care for their pet-owning community.
We are avidly looking for the right volunteer to help us continue to serve Northeastern Colorado. This could be you! Here are a few details of what we need. If you are interested to learn more, please reach out:
Tasks:
Importance of this role:
Colorado Pet Pantry is a statewide organization. Our Greeley pet food pantry is our Northern-most pet food pantry, covering the gap of land between Longmont, Loveland, and Fort Morgan, up North to the Wyoming border. This pantry reaches a host of rural communities in desperate need of pet food assistance.
With pet relinquishment at an all-time high, and many shelters reaching maximum capacity, it is essential that we continue to help this community. The Weld Food Bank Pet Food distribution began in March 2021. In our first distribution, we gave over 1,300 pounds of pet food to 46 families and their 108 pets. This location has since grown to distribute over 3,300 pounds of pet food to 101 families and their 373 pets, as of March of 2024. We are looking for a committed volunteer to help us continue this valued service to the Northeastern pet community in Colorado.
Qualifications:
Time Commitment: Approximately 7-8 hours total per month
Training Opportunities: We will train the selected volunteer on all parts of this role. We will assist and accompany until this candidate feels completely comfortable doing things on their own.
Work Environment: Our Englewood Warehouse is a shared space with other human food bank partners. We have 2-3 staff at the warehouse at any time to assist with needs. At Weld Food Bank in Greeley, we will set up our pet food pantry in the parking lot, alongside the human food bank during their distribution day. This helps us make our services easier to access, and also provides us with the support of the human food bank staff, should we need anything during out pet food pantry.
Volunteer Perks: You get to interact directly with those who are impacted by our services. This is an incredibly rewarding experience. Dogs (and sometimes even cats) often attend the pet food pantry. We will supply you with a Colorado Pet Pantry T-Shirt and involve you in volunteer get-togethers, and appreciation events. Volunteering with Colorado Pet Pantry is a great way to be involved in animal welfare industry in a positive and uplifting way. Keeping families together is a win-win for all involved.
How to Apply:
To apply for this position, please email your interest to volunteer@coloradopetpantry.org and we will reach out with the next steps.
Colorado Pet Pantry is only as strong as our volunteer force, and we have an amazing team. We are hoping that this opening will be the right opportunity for the right person to step up and make a difference in the lives of pets in Northeastern Colorado.
We are excited to shine a spotlight on one of our remarkable volunteers who has been making a significant impact through her dedication and passion. Meet Krystal Parish!
Krystal has been working with Colorado Pet Pantry for seven years. Beyond her commitment to our mission, she is an avid traveler, skier, and devoted animal lover.
Krystal goes above and beyond by actively participating in our fundraising efforts, helping to staff community pet food banks, lead community outreach events, and transporting pet food donations from all over the state!
You can catch Krystal at Parry’s Pizza this Thursday, or out hitting the slopes in Winter Park. Be sure to check out her generously donated auction item, available for rent year-round!
We’re incredibly grateful to have Krystal as part of our team! Her infectious positivity, sense of humor, and genuine passion for our cause light up our community.
Working with Krystal isn’t just fun and fulfilling—it amplifies our impact for animals in need. We appreciate her dedication and uplifting spirit, and we’d love for more folks to join us in making a difference together!
Join Krystal and others in making a difference by exploring volunteer opportunities on our website. Not able to volunteer? Consider making a donation. Thanks to our pet food partnerships, just a $5 donation can support one dog or cat with 30-days worth of pet food.
We are looking for the right individual to run our Greeley pet food pantry. This pet food pantry serves a large area in Northeastern Colorado, and this community counts on Colorado Pet Pantry. On the first Monday of every month, from 9-11AM, we distribute about 1,500 pounds of dog food and 550 pounds of cat food to 80 families, helping over 300 pets stay in their loving homes.
You could reside in the Denver area, or you could live near Greeley, Colorado. Either way, we need your help!
As lead volunteer, you would transport pet food in our Colorado Pet Pantry van, from our Englewood Warehouse, North to Greeley, and then back again after the pet food bank. The volunteers arrive at Weld Food Bank, at 8:15AM, help you set up and distribute pet food to our clients. Then at 11AM, the pet food bank closes, you and your volunteers pack up any remaining supplies into the van (there usually isn’t much if any), and depart about 11:30AM.
Test the Waters – On Monday, April 1st, join us in Greeley to find out if this is the right fit for you. If you have ever volunteered at a pet food pantry before, you would know this is a very rewarding experience, with lots of wagging tails involved. 🙂
Email info@coloradopetpantry.org if you would like to join us in April.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Sincerely,
Eileen Lambert
Executive Director
Colorado Pet Pantry
Since Colorado Pet Pantry began in 2013, Purina has donated almost 200,000 pounds of pet food and supplies to the program. This type of large-brand ongoing donation is what makes Colorado Pet Pantry’s work possible.
Thanks to Purina, we are able to plan ahead, strategize, and help as many pets as possible in Colorado with pet food assistance. Purina cares about their community and has stepped up in numerous situations with large-scale donations of dog and cat food.
Join us in saying THANK YOU to our amazing pet food donor, Purina. ❤️
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is partnering with Colorado Pet Pantry to honor a fallen K-9.
A year ago, K-9 Graffit was lost in the line of duty near the Colorado School of Mines campus.
Graffit was helping sheriff’s deputies assist the Golden Police Department. The suspect was taken into custody.
Now, to honor the 10-year-old German shepherd, sheriff’s deputies are partnering with Colorado Pet Pantry to collect dog and cat items to help owners going through a tough time.
“Graffit sacrificed his life a year ago,” Colorado Pet Pantry founder Eileen Lambert said. “I know people wanted to honor his memory and give back to other dogs and cats.”
Locations to drop off items:
“Donations continue to pour into the department. People just wanted to help,” Jefferson County Sheriff’s spokesperson Karlyn Tilley said.
Video: https://kdvr.com/news/local/donation-drive-for-dogs-cats-k-9-graffit/
We LOVE Only Natural Pet!
This local company, founded right here in Boulder, has been an instrumental supporter of Colorado pet families for as long as Colorado Pet Pantry has existed.
In addition to monthly multiple-pallet-sized (thousands of pounds) donations of brand new pet food, Only Natural Pet donates all close to best-by date or damaged bags of pet food to Colorado Pet Pantry. THIS is how we are able to operate.
This type of product, no longer sell-able in stores, would otherwise be headed straight to the landfill. Colorado Pet Pantry rescues this pet food, and with the help of valued partners like Only Natural Pet, directs it straight into the bowls of dogs and cats who need it the most.
“At Only Natural Pet we are fortunate to be working with local partners such as Colorado Pet Pantry (CPP) who share both our values and commitment to our Colorado community. For over 10 years, CPP has been supporting our local community and we look forward to supporting CPP efforts to make a difference in the lives of pets and families for years to come.”
~ The Team at Only Natural Pet
Thank you, Only Natural Pet, for partnering with us in our mission to reduce the unwanted pet population, and ensure that no pet family need to relinquish their beloved pet due to financial constraints or lack of resources. Your efforts do not go unnoticed, and we are so happy to have you on board.
