An alliance of national animal charities has joined forces with food redistribution charity FareShare and a number of large corporate donors to help owners in need to feed their pets during the cost-of-living crisis.
The Pet Food Partnership is an alliance of national charities Dogs Trust, RSPCA, Battersea and Cats Protection, and is working with FareShare to redistribute pet food donated by corporate sponsors to FareShare’s network of 9,500 charities, which provide food banks as well as supporting other services such as homelessness shelters, women’s refuge centres, older people’s lunch clubs and after school clubs.
Sponsors include Pets at Home, which has donated 38,267 Wainwright’s dog meals; Lily’s Kitchen, which has donated 332 dog meals and has committed to making monthly donations from May; Mars Petcare, which has provided 42 pallets of dog and cat food and Purina Petcare, which has committed to donating two pallets of dog and cat food every month, on top of an initial donation of two pallets.
The initiative has been made possible by pet insurer Petplan, which has donated £100,000 towards the cost of distributing the food through the FareShare network. To date, the programme has received 43,621kg of pet food, the equivalent of over 304,000 meals.
Lindsay Boswell, chief executive of FareShare, said: “The cost of living crisis is having a disproportionate impact on people already struggling to make ends meet. We’re incredibly proud to be working with these animal welfare charities and their pet food partners so that people won’t have to choose between feeding themselves or their pets during what is a challenging time for many.”
Owen Sharp, ceo of Dogs Trust commented: “It’s a privilege to be able to join forces with our fellow charities and work hand-in-glove with the corporate sector to make sure our cherished family pets don’t have to go hungry. Dogs Trust continues to receive record-breaking numbers of calls from people who need to give up their pets, so huge thanks to everyone involved in this much-needed project.”
Nicole Paley, deputy ceo of trade body UK Pet Food, added: “Our members are responsible for feeding 90% of the nation’s pets, so we have been delighted that many have signed up to the scheme and donated pet food for those in need.”
