Keeping Pets with Their Families Through Financial Hardship

A lot of people have been feeling the crunch from high inflation sending the price of eggs into the stratosphere. Even more than our groceries, pet food has seen an astonishing hike in prices in the past few years. Those price increases can make it difficult to balance the monthly budget and add to daily stress – and during times of stress we don't need to be separated from our pets, who can be experts at providing a needed mental health boost in the form of an enthusiastic welcome home or gentle beg for a walk around the block.

‍

To help keep pets with their families, Pet Pantry is stepping in. Pet pantry is a community-funded assistance program that can provide pet food to pet owner's experiencing temporary financial hardship so people aren't forced to surrender their pets because pet food can't fit into their budget this month. Since its its inception in May 2024 and is passionate about helping people in the community care for the pets they love. The goal is to keep pets well-fed and with their families by helping them get through a tough patch.

‍

Even in only 9 months of operation, it's easy to see the impact the Pet Pantry is having on people's lives with almost 400,000 meals delivered door to door to pets in our community so far. Additionally, the Pantry has donated another 1.25 million more meals and 171,000 pounds of food to shelters and rescues across Ontario to keep animals in our community from going hungry.

How it Works

The pantry is stocked with food for cats, dogs, birds, bunnies, hamsters, and guineapigs, as well as cat litter, so we've got your critters covered! Additionally, flea and tick medication are available for purchase and can be delivered with your order.

To use the service, choose the type of food and flavour you need for your pets, and load up your cart here.

At one time, you can order enough food to supply your pet for up to one month and load up your cart, with each serving of food being enough for 1 month's supply for one pet. Food orders can be put together for you to pick up, or you can share your address information during the checkout process to have items delivered to your door.

‍

Mikayla and Matteo, along with a team of volunteers led by Director of Volunteer Services & Community Partnerships Melissa F., work to organize the generous donations of pet food and supplies from our community partners and send out orders as they come in. Orders from the website are packed up in a first-come, first-delivered manner. Once packed and ready, you'll get a notification that your order is ready to pick up or a delivery time. Food will be delivered to your door!

‍

Important to Know

If you find yourself in immediate need, you can visit some of our Pantry Partners to see if help is available from them. However, please don't submit repeat requests – this service is notable to provide long-term pet food supply so only one request per household will be held in the system at a time. Submission of a repeat request will remove the previous order from the system and reset your position in the queue.

‍

Pet Pantry doesn't provide prescription medications and is not able to accommodate specialty diet or brand preferences as product availability is dictated by what is donated by our community partners. While we do our best to fulfil all orders as completely as possible, quantities of food are distributed between orders as equitably as possible given the supply on hand so it is not always possible to fulfil large orders completely.