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South Simcoe Pet Food Bank’s growth purring along, adding more pick-up spots (4 photos)

'We’re not a big, elaborate setup; we’re just a small group of residents who collect products and do what we can,' says founder Erin Sanderson

With rapidly rising costs for consumers, the South Simcoe Pet Food Bank aims to grow with more pick-up locations across the region as pet owners struggle with the stress of affordability of being able to feed their furry loved ones.

Erin Sanderson, founder of the food bank for pets, explains the issue from her Gilford home in Innisfil.

“Through the pandemic, the need almost doubled in the past couple of years. We started out small and I still store all the food in the front hall of my house, to my husband’s dismay," she tells Village Media. "With our expanding with pick-up spots around the region, people don’t have to come all the way to Innisfil to access the donations.

"We’ve got a lot more availability for people to pick up. We now have seven pickup spots in total and looking for more," Sanderson says. 

The volunteer service began five years ago and has now expanded to Bradford and Barrie along with Innisfil.

The main point of contact for the service has been its Facebook page, which can be found here.

“If you need it, then we’ll have it and we’re going to give it to you. We don’t have applications and we don’t ask a lot of questions,” says Sanderson. “We’re not a big, elaborate setup; we’re just a small group of residents who collect products and do what we can. That’s how we started, but we’re getting a lot bigger now.

“Recipients let me know where they are and what their needs are and we have pickup spots run by volunteers that are located across the region," she adds. "We are still looking for a volunteer for a north-end Barrie pick-up spot. We operate as a pick-up only service and we direct the person to the volunteer location that is closest to the recipient to get the donation."

They have also recently started collecting monetary donations to start a program that works directly with veterinarians, assisting people who might have a hard time paying for prescription pet food. The program could begin this spring. 

"We have a lot of people that call us and that’s their main issue  their pets must go on a specific prescription food and they can’t afford it," Sanderson says. "We do have a couple of vets that donate open-product prescription foods, so sometimes we can match recipients up with what they need.

"What we would do is let the veterinary clinic themselves determine if the person needs help and then we would cover a percentage (of the cost) for a period of time. We hope that this new program that works directly with vets will help a lot more people," she says. 

When asked about how many people have been helped by the service, Sanderson says it has been informal up until this year.

"I have not recorded any numbers (of recipients), but it’s anywhere from two to four people per week. This year, I’ve been registering us as a registered charity where we’ll be taking monetary donations," she says. 

So what drives her and the fellow volunteers to undertake such a task?  

“We’re all just regular people and we’ve all worked with animals professionally or have been volunteers with rescues, volunteering in some capacity," Sanderson says. "And we’ve all come to the conclusion that most of the time animals are not surrendered to shelters because they are unloved, it’s because someone had to make a hard decision and usually that’s a financial decision."

They also have a lot of recipients who are seniors and their pets are "everything to them. These pets are important to their own survival," she says. 

“They are on a senior’s budget and as their pets age their needs increase, this is where the prescription foods come in. We want people to keep their pets. We don’t want them to surrender them because they can’t afford to keep them," Sanderson says. "So, what we do is we offer temporary assistance. We’re only meant to be temporary to help you get through a tough time, but we will help you feed them, and we’ll provide the supplies to help you get through that tough time and keep that animal out of a shelter.”

And like regular food banks, she says there's a list of items that are needed.

“We are always asking for donations of cat and dog kibble as well as cans as we always need them, but we always get requests for small animals like gerbils, hamsters, ferrets. We don’t get a lot of donations for those types of animals, but we are accepting those," says Sanderson. 

“We need any kind of pet food product, which need to be unopened and within their best-before dates. We also accept other pet supplies as long they are gently used.”

In addition to its Facebook page, the South Simcoe Pet Food Bank can be reached at [email protected].


Kevin Lamb

About the Author: Kevin Lamb

Kevin Lamb picked up a camera in 2000 and by 2005 was freelancing for the Barrie Examiner newspaper until its closure in 2017. He is an award-winning photojournalist, with his work having been seen in many news outlets across Canada and internationally
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