Showing the true meaning of the holiday season, the Schuylkill County Pet Food Pantry held its last pet food distribution of the year Tuesday morning in downtown Pottsville, but more food is needed.
Michelle Schuettler, owner of The Dirty Dog Self Serve Pet Wash & Boutique, 217 N. Centre St., where the food was distributed, said the pantry gave food to 122 area families. The families received 2,202 pounds of dog food, 848 pounds of cat food and some families got food for birds, ferrets and a rat, virtually leaving the pantry's stock barren.
"Our supplies now are pretty much depleted," Schuettler said.
She said the pantry now only has a few cans of dog food remaining, and to prepare for Tuesday's distribution, she and other volunteers had to buy $500 worth of food to fill all the orders. The funds came through donations to the pantry.
"We've never had to go out and buy dog food since we opened in September of last year, but cat food is a given," said Kelly Bruce, who founded the pantry with Schuettler. "We're pretty much down to nothing."
According to a Schuylkill County Pet Food Pantry brochure, the pantry aims to help people keep their pets at home and out of shelters by providing donated pet food to qualifying low-income families. It also strives to counsel clients on the importance of spaying or neutering and all aspects of responsible pet ownership.
While the amount of food distributed depends on how much the pantry has at the time, Schuettler said volunteers basically take everything and divide it up the best they can. The food is distributed about every eight weeks.
"We'd like to get to the point where we have a monthly distribution," she said. "What we give them is a supplement, not an entire supply."
To receive the food, recipients must submit applications before distribution.
On Tuesday, the pantry received eight new applications and had nine applications to put into an inactive file since the pet owners either weren't able to be reached or didn't come to pick up food.
Often times, Schuettler said volunteers will call a number and find it's disconnected or it will be a number for a pre-paid cellphone that ran out of minutes, leaving them no way to reach the client.
For those who do come to get food, they receive food for the pets they have. However, they are told they will be turned away if they continue to get more pets, which has been the case a few times with some people who "intentionally breed their animals," Schuettler said.
When submitting an application, the clients sign an agreement stating that they will not get more animals.
Schuettler said since the pantry was started in September 2011, it has grown from being very small scale and informal, just giving food to those who needed it, to a new system that involves an application, client and pet information being kept on file and serving close to 150 people per distribution.
The pantry also operates outside of Schuettler's normal business hours.
The next distribution, planned for February, will depend on an influx of food donations, but Schuettler said they also give out food for emergencies.
For more information or to donate pet food, visit the Schuylkill County Pet Food Pantry on Facebook at www.facebook.com/schpetfoodpantry or call Schuettler at The Dirty Dog at 570-581-8580.
