Don’t go into Winter without knowing that your furnace is functioning correctly. Your family and pets will thank you. Once again, Applewood Plumbing Heating & Electric is offering our friends a timely way to support the Colorado Pet Pantry pet food bank.
Schedule a furnace tune-up during September (a service valued at $199) for $99. One hundred percent of your furnace check fee will be made directly to Colorado Pet Pantry as a donation. Last year, so many families took advantage of this generous offer that we were able to feed 417 additional pets (twice as many as we raised in 2018! Woot!).
As we head into fall, we are feeling the full effect of the global pandemic. The need for assistance continues to grow as more and more people are missing paychecks. Many people will feed their pets before they feed themselves and we are here to tell them they do not need to do that. We have 62 monthly pet food banks all across the Front Range. We are open to the public and we are here for you, and your pets. To find a local food bank in your area, please check out our monthly schedule.
Colorado Pet Pantry client Carmen shares a photo of her beloved pet. Carmen says, “I want to thank the pet food bank for the dog food. It helps me because I am on a fixed income and cannot afford his food. He loves his food, thank you I appreciate it.”
As the need for pet food assistance grows, so does our need for volunteers. Volunteering with Colorado Pet Pantry is one of the most fulfilling and beneficial things you can do to help the animals in your community, and it’s worth mentioning it’s a blast! We have the best crew of volunteers around.
Friday, August 21st with City of Denver Mobile Pet Food Bank This event is separated into two shifts (9:15AM-12:30PM & 12PM-2:30PM). We need help for both shifts.
Friday, August 28th with City of Denver Mobile Pet Food Bank This event is separated into two shifts (9:15AM-12:30PM & 12PM-2:30PM). We need help for both shifts.
Friday, August 28th in Loveland. Our monthly pet food bank at Food Bank for Larimer County runs from 10:15AM – 1:30PM.
Monday, August 31st in Alamosa. This pet food bank at La Puente’s Food Bank needs volunteers from 11:30AM – 2:30PM.
Wednesday, Sept 2nd in Conifer. This monthly pet food bank with Mountain Resource Center needs volunteers from 12:15PM – 3:30PM.
Thursday, Sept 3rd in Denver. This monthly pet food bank at Bienvenidos Food Bank needs volunteers from 9:30AM – 11:30AM.
Friday, Sept 4th with City of Denver Mobile Pet Food Bank This event is separated into two shifts (9:15AM-12:30PM & 12PM-2:30PM).
Wednesday, Sept 9th in Denver. This monthly pet food bank at Denver Inner City Parish (DICP) needs volunteers from 9AM – 11AM.
Friday, September 11th with City of Denver Mobile Pet Food Bank This event is separated into two shifts (9:15AM-12:30PM & 12PM-2:30PM).
Thank you for considering volunteering with our organization. We guarantee you will have a wonderful time, we look forward to meeting you, and our clients are grateful for your service.
Send us your pet challenge videos to be considered! Deadline is 11:59 PM on Wednesday May 6. This is the #perfectquarantineactivity.
We have shared some examples of challenges we have seen, with videos on how to’s. Dig deep in your imagination and video your pets doing something fun! (all pets, not just the dogs!)
To submit your video:
Send us a video of your pet doing a trick, being silly, putting its nose through a paper O, whatever!
There are three steps to submit your video for consideration:
Record a video of less than 30 seconds of your pet. We may trim or edit the video if needed.
Upload your video here (submission window has closed)
Email us and let us know your name, email address, phone (just in case email doesn’t work), filename of video, and your pet’s name.
Please remember that when sending videos, we ask that you limit the time to no more than 30 seconds to ensure that we can get as many in as possible.
CPP reserves the right to trim and edit your video.
Here are some ideas to get the creative juices flowing:
Tip Toe Challenge
Put your pet’s reflexes to the test and see how
well they can tippy toe about in an agility test. Set up a number of items from your house such
as lotion bottles, dominoes, small spray cans etc and see if your pet can get
across.
Egg Challange
Give your pet a RAW EGG and see just how gentle
they can be. It sounds messy, but surprisingly many dogs have been able to show
us just how gentle they can be!
Snout Challenge
Form a circle, heart, or other shape with your
hands and see if your pet will nuzzle their muzzle into the formation.
What the fluff
See how your pet reacts to an amateur
disappearing act. Use a blanket and a doorway. Start by playing peek-a-boo then
disappear by going into the next room at the same time that you toss the
blanket on the floor making it seem like you have vanished.
Cookie Stack
Great for very patient treat lovers! See how
many cookies you are able to stack on your pets snout without dropping any!
K9 Ninja Warrior
Set up your own obstacle course and put your pet
to the test!
Dance Party
Show us your moves with a choreographed dance
party with your furry friend, or a dance party to the song of your choosing.
(animal songs encouraged)
Hide and
seek / Peek a boo
Plant yourself in a spot out of sight from your
pets and call them to try and find you.
Hurdle Challenge
Stack up a hurdle and see how high your pet can
go! Progress into higher and higher levels as you go along.
Copy Cats
They say imitation is the best form of flattery. Show us
your furry friends challenging you to a game of copy cat.
“Who did that?”
One of the best qualities in a best friend is
honesty. This challenge is just that. Show us your furry friends confession to
their latest mishap.
Invisible wall
Stretch a bunch of cellophane across an open door, get a dog
hyped up enough to chase you, seeing how long it takes them to get past the
invisible wall.
Best in Show
Show us any special skills or tricks or just silly habits that your pets have, be it the best smile, sing along’s, you name it, we want to see it!
Tic-Tac-toe
Quarantined Owners Use Cardboard Boxes To Turn Their Pets Into Dinosaurs
If there is a challenge that you know of that we don’t, submit those too we would love to see them!
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.
The procedure will be much different than usual. You’ll drive into the parking lot and 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 you can get the pet food that you need.
Thank you and good health to you.
Changed locations
Wednesdays in August, 2020: Aurora Mobile Food Pantry – we are participating with City of Aurora, Aurora Interfaith Community Services, Food Bank of the Rockies, and SECOR Cares in the Aurora Mobile Food Pantry, every Wednesday at Town Center of Aurora, 14200 E Alameda Ave in Aurora, 10AM – until supplies last.
Colorado City Pet Food Bank is cancelled indefinitely – we are sorry for any inconvenience. All clients of this pet food bank can attend the Pueblo Pet Food Bank at Lynn Gardens Baptist Church, 3804 West Pueblo Blvd in Pueblo. The Pueblo Pet Food Bank is on the fourth Thursday of the month from 11AM – 1PM.
La Junta, and Sugar City Pet Food Banks are cancelled indefinitely – we are sorry for any inconvenience. All clients of these pet food banks are to attend the Ordway Pet Food Bank, 313 Main St in Ordway. The Ordway Pet Food Bank is on the last Monday of the month from 2:30PM – 4:30PM (This pet food bank has no July distribution).
Friday, August 21st, 2020 –Mobile Pantry with City of Denver – we will be participating in a mobile food pantry event with the City. We will be at the 14050 Maxwell Place in Denver from 10AM – 2PM.
Friday, August 28th, 2020 – Mobile Pantry with City of Denver – we will be participating in a mobile food pantry event with the City. We will be at the 3201 W Arizona Ave in Denver from 10AM – 2PM.
Monday, August 31st, 2020 – The Ordway Pet Food Bank has a new time frame and it is a permanent change. The pet food bank will be open from 2:30PM – 3:30PM.
Friday, September 4th, 2020 –Mobile Pantry with City of Denver – we will be participating in a mobile food pantry event with the City. We will be at the 14050 Maxwell Place in Denver from 10AM – 2PM.
Tuesday, September 8th, 2020 – Aurora Interfaith Community Services pet food bank will be moved to the second Tuesday of the month permanently. The pet food bank will be open from 11AM – 12:30PM
Friday, September 11th, 2020 – Mobile Pantry with City of Denver – we will be participating in a mobile food pantry event with the City. We will be at the 3201 W Arizona Ave in Denver from 10AM – 2PM.
Friday, September 18th, 2020 –Mobile Pantry with City of Denver – we will be participating in a mobile food pantry event with the City. We will be at the 14050 Maxwell Place in Denver from 10AM – 2PM.
Friday, September 25th, 2020 – Mobile Pantry with City of Denver – we will be participating in a mobile food pantry event with the City. We will be at the 3201 W Arizona Ave in Denver from 10AM – 2PM.
What we need
We need volunteers at pet food banks and in the warehouse to assist in distributing pet food and organizing donations for each pet food bank. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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!
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.
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.
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.”
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.
There really is such a thing as giving until it hurts (our muscles at least!).
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 
