Meals On Wheels, Pet Hospital Collect Food for Pets Over Holidays

By J. Gelband, 12-10-07

There are canned food drives everywhere you look during the holidays. There are Idaho Foodbank barrels at the grocery store, in your bank, at the library. But unfortunately, people aren’t the only ones starving; there are hundreds of pets going without meals this season as well.

Hopefully there will be fewer hungry people and fewer hungry pets this year because Meals On Wheels is organizing a pet food drive.

Meals On Wheels, the agency that provides more than 600 seniors in Ada and Elmore counties with daily hot, nutritious meals, is partnering with Banfield, the pet hospital inside the Petsmart in Meridian, for Season of Suppers, a pet food drive for the canine and feline companions of homebound seniors.

“Right now we have 100 seniors with 79 dogs and 144 cats interested in the program,” senior nutrition program manager Angela Spain said. “The pets are so important to our seniors that we want to ensure they’re being fed well, too.”

This is the second year of the Season of Suppers. Last year, Banfield collected 2,029 pounds of dog and cat food and distributed it to 94 Meals On Wheels recipients.

Anyone can drop off donations of wet or dry cat or dog food at Banfield’s through the end of the year.  In Elmore County donations can be dropped off at Central District Health in Mountain Home.

At the end of the drive, volunteers will deliver the pet food to more than 100 seniors on the Meals On Wheels program who have expressed an interest in getting food for their pets.