National Pet Food Bank Program

Happy New Year from the National Pet Food Bank program!

The year 2023 brought so many exciting developments to the National Pet Food Bank. Between awarding grants, building our network map, and coordinating national pet food donations, we were busy! We look forward to continuing the work of bolstering community supports to help keep families together into 2024.

In our last update, we shared that we were preparing for the fourth cycle of National Pet Food Bank grants, which focused on supporting Indigenous-led programs and those that serve northern or rural areas. We received many incredible applications, and we are pleased to share that after careful consideration from our Grants Review Committee, eight recipients have been selected. The grant recipient organizations and entities span right across the country, and we are excited to follow their journey as they support the people and pets in their communities. We look forward to further supporting the development of these programs in whatever capacity we can.

The National Pet Food Bank has also collaborated once again with Mars Petcare through their Extend a Paw initiative, an event in which each select Mars Petcare product sold at Canadian Walmart stores results in Mars donating a meal to the National Pet Food Bank network. This initiative, which ends at the end of February 2024, has provided the network with more than 400,000 meals to date. Pet food from this initiative has been distributed to more than ten animal rescues and organizations across the country and will feed many animals in need.

Thanks to supporters like you, the National Pet Food Bank continues to support the development of new pet food assistance programs which will help interspecies families during difficult times. We look forward to publishing the National Pet Food Bank map in early 2024 which will make information about how to access these pet food support programs easier to find. Thank you so much for your continued support; it means so much to us, to the organizations we work with, and to so many people and their animals across Canada.

We wish you a happy and healthy 2024 and look forward to continue to share our National Pet Food Bank work with you.

Links:

• https://humanecanada.ca