In February of last year, my thoughts of starting a pet food pantry in Jefferson County became a reality.
Thanks to Bi-State Pet Food Pantry (Sandy and Kylie) for letting me pick your brain, observe a distribution and all of the help to get us up and running. Thanks to Cherie Bauman and I55 Store It for your help and giving us a nice place to get started.
June 16th, 2011 we had our first pet food distribution. Since then, this is what we have given to those in need:
- Dry Dog Food – 520 pounds
- Dry Cat Food – 238 pounds
- Canned Dog Food – 73 cans
- Canned Cat Food – 240 cans
- Cat Litter – 200 pounds
We have given away 7 pounds of Gerbil Food, 10 pounds of Rabbit Food, various treats, toys, collars, leashes, beds , de-wormer, sweaters, shampoo, flea meds, crates and MORE!!
We were able to donate a case of cat food each to Tenth Life, Animal House Fund and St. Louis Pet Rescue. We were happy to deliver 2 large bags of puppy food to Canines In Crisis and countless treats as well as specialty food (kitten, senior, etc) to JCAC when they needed it.
Most importantly, we were able to educate some people on spaying and neutering. Thanks to BARC and the other wonderful programs available in St. Louis City (we really need some in JeffCo) . Several of the people using our service were able to get their animals altered for cheap and even FREE!!
In closing, a HUGE Thank You to the PetCo in Arnold (Lisa and Kim) for letting us have a donation area and all of the donations you have given us. Thanks to our FaceBook friends who have been so generous in donating food and money. Thanks to Diane Paglusch who is always in our hearts, to Allison Rabbit for the cute potholders, my family and my little buddy Aubrey who is always there when I need her. I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone.
We still need a place in Jefferson County to store food and have distributions. Until we can get a location I will be delivering food to those in need until we get another place.
Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible.
Debby Mikles
Jefferson County Pet Food Pantry 314-723-6127
