Out of the Cage! (February 2010)

Animal Relief Fund Channels Pet Food to Struggling Pet Owners

It's been just over a year since Manhattan real estate lawyer Susan Kaufman was inspired by a news report about the recession's impact on pet owners to create the Animal Relief Fund (ARF), a program in NYC that provides pet food to human food pantries. Today, hundreds of needy NYC pet owners are benefiting.

It sounds like such a simple idea — providing pet food to cash-strapped NYC pet owners through the same channels already in place to put "people food" on their tables. But if the idea is simple, executing it was anything but.

Because pet food isn't covered under food stamps, some pet owners struggling to make ends meet simply can't afford to feed their pets, and make the difficult decision to surrender their pets to a shelter. To Susan, and many others, that option isn't acceptable. Herself a pet owner (she shares her home with her Boston Terrier, Rex), she believes that pets are part of the family and should remain where they belong, at home.

Susan began contacting local food pantries to gauge their interest in offering pet food to their clients. She also began calling pet food stores to obtain donations of pet food to stock the pantries. Early success came when she enlisted pet food retailer Calling All Pets to donate food, and the Yorkville Common Pantry on Manhattan's Upper East Side to distribute it to the pantry's customers.

Having created a model for how the program can work, Susan began expanding it. She developed a website for her organization, which she dubbed the Animal Relief Fund (ARF) (www.arf-ny.org). She enlisted the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals (through her association with Alliance President Jane Hoffman; both she and Jane are members of the Animal Law Committee of the NYC Bar Association). "Jane immediately recognized that ARF was working proactively to reduce the number of animals going into the shelter system," says Susan. "The strong support of the Mayor's Alliance has given ARF instant credibility and many opportunities for publicity and creating awareness. ARF could not have come this far this quickly without that support."

Today, ARF delivers pet food to six pantries, in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. But Susan has bigger plans for New York City. "There are so many pets at risk of losing their homes. The only way to make a real dent in this problem is to get pet food distribution going in more pantries in all five boroughs. And the only way to get that kind of distribution is by partnering with the Food Bank For New York City, which is the city's designated food bank and supplier to approximately 1,000 food pantries, emergency shelters, and other relief organizations," she says. Food Bank For New York City has distributed large donations from ARF and from Bideawee, an Alliance Participating Organization. But Susan's goal is to get a steady supply of pet food to Food Bank For New York City, which then will make it available to individual pantries. This partnership will allow thousands of pet owners in need to receive free pet food at the food pantries they patronize.

Next month, the PETCO Foundation will team up with ARF as part of its "We Are Family Too" program. The result will be a pet food drive at PETCO stores in New York City and Long Island. All food donations collected in PETCO stores in the five boroughs will be distributed by ARF's partner, the Food Bank For New York City, and all food donations collected in PETCO stores in Nassau and Suffolk counties will be distributed by Long Island Cares, another ARF partner. Through the distribution systems of these major organizations, ARF will be able to get pet food to hundreds of pet-owning families.

As part of "I Love NYC Pets" Month, ARF is offering multiple opportunities for New Yorkers to help their fellow New Yorkers struggling to care for their pets:

Donate online.

Visit a PETCO store and donate food you purchase at the store.

Visit one of the independent pet food stores listed on the ARF website and purchase a "donation packet" at checkout.

For more information about the Animal Relief Fund and how you can help, visit www.arf-ny.org.  You can also watch a video that shows ARF in action: