MISSOULA — Food access is critical for pets, just as it is for people.
AniMeals, a no-kill shelter, offers an animal food bank to help ensure Missoula pets get the nutrition they need.
With uncertain and delayed SNAP funding, high prices and even cold weather, the pet food bank is seeing more demand and more donations.
“It’s like the perfect storm,” AniMeals Executive Director Janet Rose said. “We're seeing rising costs, the rising cost of pet food, the rising cost of human food and people losing funding who need it most.”
The food bank offers options for dogs and cats, feeding pets with owners in crisis — in between paychecks or otherwise in need. Some of the food even goes towards Missoula’s feral cat colonies.
“Anyone who needs pet food can come in,” Rose said. “We will also deliver food for those who need it and that's what I really love about it, that there's almost no demographic that isn't provided with food that they need.”
As winter sets in, the food bank typically sees more use. Cats and other animals need twice the calories, thus more food, to maintain themselves in colder temperatures. But, this year, Rose said food is flying out off the shelves at a much higher rate.
“The cost of pet food is going up significantly, food scarcity with the SNAP program and the challenges people are facing now going up significantly, the demand is going up significantly,” she said.
Along with the rising demand, donations have also increased. The food bank received more than 300 pounds of cat food just in this past weekend.
“It's serving a great need right now, because things are pretty tough out there at the moment,” Manager Colin Moreschi Connor said. “We've been going through it pretty quickly, so we definitely wouldn't say no to having, you know, a little bit more help. It goes a really long way.”
To keep up with the need, AniMeals is looking for more donations. It just kicked off its holiday campaign, placing giving trees around town and at the shelter that feature gift cards and other ways to help.
“Everybody is extremely grateful to get some help. We can all definitely lean on each other and people just sometimes need a helping hand,” Moreschi Connor said.
The pet food bank is available everyday except Thursday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
“Our pets are our lifeline. They're something we can't live without,” Rose said. “So we, as an animal adoption center and animal food bank, need to be on the front lines of being able to provide everything that people need so their pets don't go hungry and so that they don't have to give up their pets.”
