When we think about hunger, we likely don’t think about pets. Yet some 30 million pets are living in food-insecure households across the country.
"My name is Lawrence Gardner …. And my pet is named Princess," he says as he calls to her."
This is 63-year-old Gardner's first visit to St. Mary’s Food Bank. "My wife recently passed, and my funds have been kind of depleted as far as groceries and all that."
Besides getting a week’s worth of food, on this day, St. Mary’s is also distributing bags of cat and dog food, which is good news for Gardner, who’s on a fixed income.
"Because dog food is very expensive now. I mean, just like a pack of diapers almost," he said.
Kate Atema is the director of community grants initiatives at PetSmart Charities.
"Pets are incredibly important support for all vulnerable people, but for seniors in particular, it may be their primary source of social companionship," she said.
Yet many of these homes are food insecure, meaning the pet owner can't afford pet care costs.
It's also why PetSmart has teamed up with Meals on Wheels.
"Meals on Wheels America was noticing, when they were giving meals to seniors, they would come back and find those meals on the floor because they were being shared with pets," Atema said.
And Atema says no family should be forced to surrender a pet because they can’t afford to feed it. "St. Mary's has received 450,000 pounds of pet food in just the last two years. This is a monthly distribution, and you can see almost everybody coming through the line is requesting dog or cat food. It's just an incredibly important source of keeping families together," she said.
