The Nutro Co. donates 1 million cat meals to the Petco Foundation

In February, the Nutro Co. donated more than one million meals of its Natural Choice cat food to the Petco Foundation's petfood bank program via collection bins in Petco stores nationwide.
"It's important to the Nutro Co. to give back and support a healthy lifestyle for all pets, which starts with a well-balanced diet," said Kent Cunningham, vice president of marketing.
The Petco Foundation established a nationwide network of petfood banks by placing collection bins in Petco stores for customers to drop off food or cat litter donations. Each Petco store then partners with an existing human food bank or animal welfare group's petfood bank to give the petfood donations directly to economically-stressed pet owners in the community. Since its launch in February 2010, the Petco Foundation has collected 500,000 pounds of food and added 400 new charitable partners, according to Petco.

Petfood bank aids in New Zealand quake relief

A group in Auckland, New Zealand, is preparing to launch a petfood bank and has stepped up before it's opening to help those affected by the Canterbury, New Zealand, earthquake.
Paw Justice Pet Food Bank will officially launch at the Champ Wag 'n' Walk dog walk and fun day in Auckland, September 26, but co-founders Craig Dunn and Shaughan Campbell are distributing petfood from Heinz Wattie's Ltd., with help from Mainfreight/Dailyfreight, to animal shelters in Christchurch, New Zealand. Heinz Wattie's has donated several pallets of Chef cat food and premium Nutri+Plus dog kibble.
Paw Justice Pet Food Bank will distribute food to animal shelters and food banks across the nation.
Additional Champ Wag 'n' Walk dog walk and fun days will be held October 31 in Wellington, New Zealand, and December 4 in Christchurch.

Pets of the Homeless leads national petfood drive

Pets of the Homeless will hold a national petfood drive for the first National Feeding Pets of the Homeless week, Aug. 8-14.
The organization is asking the public to take donations of petfood and petfood supplies to one of the identified, local collection sites, so they can be distributed to food banks and homeless shelters nationwide. A listing of over 200 collection sites can be found on the organization's website.
"Since 2008, collection site members have taken over 52 tons of pet food and over $8,000 worth of supplies to homeless shelters, food banks and soup kitchens across the country. It is a combined effort to continue year-round collections of pet food. We applaud the caring, member volunteers who have reported their contributions. The need is great for communities to continue to donate to this on-going effort," said Genevieve Frederick, executive director of Pets of the Homeless.

Katie Couric reports on petfood banks

CBS news anchor Katie Couric recently reported that the Petco Foundation and other organizations are building a nationwide network of petfood banks and Meals on Wheels now provides food for the pets of people it serves.