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!
Why Krystal Stands Out
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!
Words of Appreciation
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.
Congratulations to our outstanding volunteer, Krystal Parish, for receiving the July 2023 Minoru Yasui Community Volunteer Award for her dedication and energy that she brings to Colorado Pet Pantry. This award celebrates volunteers in our community who make a difference, and recipients receive a $2,000 grant, to donate to the nonprofit of their choice. Thanks to Krystal and MYCVA, this grant will provide 400 dogs and cats with a 30-day supply of pet food.
Krystal has been a volunteer with Colorado Pet Pantry for over six years, and during this time, she has contributed significantly to our organization. Not only does she help fill “normal” CPP needs, like helping to distribute pet food at monthly pet food banks and transporting pet food, she regularly goes above and beyond to seek out fundraising opportunities and other ways to help the organization grow and continue to meet the rising need in the community.
Krystal is the main driving force behind our auction fundraisers and has contributed in making them very successful. She solicits and secures a large portion of the donated items that we put in our auctions and donates endless hours toward organizing and creating packages and gift baskets. She even works side gigs, like guest bartending at events and helping to bottle bourbon at a local distillery, in exchange for auctions items. She has proposed and executed many new and innovative ways to help us raise funds to feed pets.
Krystal volunteers monthly at our pet food bank in Conifer, with Mountain Resource Center. She participates in outreach events, and hauls truckloads of pet food to our pet food banks. Krystal also runs a mini pet food bank at her place of work – IKEA. Thanks to Krystal, Denver IKEA employees have their own spot to grab pet food and supplies when times are tight. She also creates and runs workplace fundraisers, like recycling cans, giving IKEA employees an easy and free way to help raise funds for Colorado Pet Pantry.
Krystal is quick to respond to any needs that pop up. When the East Troublesome Wildfire occurred in Grand County in 2020, she ran the emergency response and distributed pet food and supplies to those who lost or were displaced from their homes.
At the Minoru Yasui Community Volunteer Award ceremony at our warehouse in Englewood on July 5th, members of the MYCVA Committee, Colorado Pet Pantry team members, and Krystal’s family, celebrated Krystal and her hard work and dedication to Colorado Pet Pantry. MYCVA Committee members shared the history and significance of the Minoru Yasui Community Volunteer Award and talked about Krystal’s contributions and dedication to Colorado Pet Pantry, and presented Krystal with the grant for $2,000 donated to Colorado Pet Pantry, a Minoru Yasui Community Volunteer Award Plaque, and a Proclamation from Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s office.
DENVER – Food bank lines are always long, but the one at Focus Points Family Resource Center in Denver’s Swansea neighborhood is often extra long. The reason? A partnership with Colorado Pet Pantry, the largest pet food bank in metro Denver.
The food is provided by the Colorado Pet Pantry, the largest organization of its kind in the U.S. Every month, volunteers help distribute pet food at 105 food banks in 29 different Colorado counties. Founder Eileen Lambert says the Pantry’s mission is simply to help families who might not otherwise be able afford to keep their pets.
“Maybe rent just increased, which we know is a big deal. Gas prices. Our goal is just to help them over the hump so that they can keep this animal that they’ve probably had for 12 years,” Lambert explains
Lori Henley volunteers for Colorado Pet Pantry at four or five food banks a month – often after picking up many of the donations from pet stores in the area.
She says a lack of food shouldn’t be the reason anyone gives up a pet.
“I feel real empathy, I guess, for their plight,” she says. “It could be us. You never know. But you know, it could be us.”
Fellow volunteers say they see Lori at nearly every Colorado Pet Pantry event they go to. They say her willingness to help, and her knowledge of animal care, are invaluable, making her the perfect person to be a Denver7 Everyday Hero.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — There are two kinds of people in this world: those who like animals and those who love them. Julianne Butler is definitely the latter.
When she stumbled upon Colorado Pet Pantry eight years ago, it was a natural fit for her to volunteer.
“I love pets, but going and volunteering at like a shelter or something like that — I was too afraid I’d come home with too many all the time. So this was a way for me to give back and help those people that have pets,” Butler said.
The nonprofit helps financially strapped families with food and pet supplies so they aren’t forced to make the heartbreaking decision to surrender their pets. Butler was the first volunteer to sign up for the nonprofit.
“She volunteered with us for about four months and she said, ‘Hey, I’d really like to do this in my own community,’ which is near Jewish Family service in southeast Denver,” said Colorado Pet Pantry Founder Eileen Lambert. “I said, let’s do it.”
Each week, Butler makes the rounds to places like Chuck and Don’s Pet Food & Supplies to pick up food, leashes and donations. For people struggling to get by, those donations mean everything.
“I see people — they would come to the food bank and they would cry because they were struggling so much to feed their pets and we’re handing them really good bags of food and toys and collars or leashes or beds,” Butler said.
Today, Colorado Pet Pantry has 102 food bank locations statewide. Last year, it provided families with 5.1 million meals thanks to everyday heroes like Butler.
“Our volunteers are the ones that are out there doing the food banks, talking to our clients, creating these relationships, spreading the good word, and they’re the ones that do so much of the legwork to make this all happen,” Lambert said.
