The Pongo Fund Pet Food Bank

For those of you that have never experienced the power of Pongo please take a look at this photo. See all those people? Each and every one of them, in addition to 35 Pongo volunteers, was at The Pongo Fund Pet Food Bank at that single moment in time.

Nearly 200 people in total that refuse to let their pets go hungry. People that regularly give up their own food to keep their pets fed. Because hungry people have hungry pets.

People that are truly thankful to have found their way to The Pongo Fund. Because they know they will be treated with kindness. With dignity. With respect.

Because they know we will help them through these tough times so they will not need to give their animals to a shelter where far too many are euthanized. Because euthanizing an animal simply because they are hungry and there is no more room at the shelter is horribly wrong.

Thankfully, with your help, we can keep that from happening.

Our pet food bank is not pretty or fancy. We have no heat in the winter and no AC in the summer. A raw concrete floor. Unpainted walls covered in spackle. Not even a sign on the door. But those we help don’t care about how we look. They care about the work we do.

We have no marketing staff. No development staff. No public relations staff. We don’t spend our money casually. We spend it on food and the costs that get it where it’s needed. Nearly 5,000,000 nutritious meals served so far.

Because it is that food that gives a chance to animals that might not otherwise have a chance and gives hope to families that have little else to be hopeful for. Because a simple bowl of kibble can be the force that both keeps a family together and saves the lives of the animals they love.

This single moment in time. Thanks to this photo you were there. And that is why we Pongo.

Peace. Love. Kibble. 

Thank you, from all of us at The Pongo Fund

The names and faces have been changed for privacy.

What does it mean to Pongo? It means that when you have lost your job and the first paycheck from your new job is still 30 days away, and the food you feed your 90 lb. rescued greyhound is a high-quality special diet due to her extreme allergies, and the $70 cost per bag is $70 more than you have right now, and you have already borrowed from everyone you know, pawned everything you have and they won’t let you give any more blood this week, then you Pongo.

Because this 90 lb. lapdog named Elsa is the most important thing in the world to you.  And you will stop at nothing to make sure she is happy and healthy and never knows hunger. These are the times you Pongo.

More than 350 hungry animals received nutritious food from The Pongo Fund Pet Food Bank yesterday. And every single one of them has a story. This was the story for Jen and Elsa. A story that Jen said did not begin well on Sunday when she sat in despair, unsure of what she was going to do. She had heard good things about The Pongo Fund but worried that what she heard was too good to be true.

And she said the last thing she wanted to do was tell her Elsa she was leaving to get her breakfast but come home empty handed. She felt afraid, she felt nervous and she felt defeated. But when she left, she said she was walking on air with a big bag of the very food she had dreamed of getting. And she could not get home fast enough to show Elsa the new bag.

This is what it means to Pongo.  

32 trained Pongo volunteers rocked the house yesterday, coming together as we always do to celebrate the people and their pets.

Yesterday was a Pongo Day. And we are still smiling about it today.

Peace. Love. Kibble. From all of us at The Pongo Fund.

Links:

• The Pongo Fund website