For Doggie Mamas, Kitty Mamas, Too
Feeding Pets of the Homeless offers a nationwide food bank and sometimes helps with veterinary care for needy pet owners. Now in Canada, too.
This nonprofit is run by a mom and her daughter.
Nancy Martin, President and Community Impact Coordinator of Friends Involved in Dog Outreach (FIDO), an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) organization in Oregon dedicated to helping people and their animal companions stay together. Nancy was nominated for a Game Changer award by Bryan M.
From Show Dog Handler to Food Bank President
Nancy was a professional handler for dog shows for 40 years in the Chicago area. Over the years, she realized she always had dog food left over after shows, and she began donating it to pet owners in need through her local veterinarian. When she retired from showing dogs and moved to Oregon, Nancy decided she wanted to continue helping pet parents in need.
She knew that with all the connections she’d made in her career, she’d have no problem securing dog food. She started working with her dog show friends and found the kennel clubs to be incredibly generous in terms of donations.
At the time, there was a small struggling non-profit in Oregon that ran a program called AniMeals to provide senior citizens in need with food for their animal companions. Nancy got involved and helped them arrange for donations, deliveries, and other essentials. Since then, the operation has expanded to a full-time pet food bank and an emergency response program, along with programs for veterans and the homeless.
“It’s kind of amazing,” said Nancy. “It’s in fact a destination resource. We have a hard venue — a warehouse — and we’re really making a huge difference.”
FIDO’s track record is nothing short of amazing in terms of helping pets stay with their owners and out of shelters.
“A big part of shelter relinquishment is the inability to provide for the pet,” Nancy explained. “It’s a fact that has been underreported or misrepresented for a long time. Most people don’t want to give up their pets, but they’re forced to if they can’t care for them.”
I asked Nancy if FIDO is able to consistently meet the demand for pet food.
“Early on, the numbers were manageable,” she explained. “Now, they're not. Luckily, I have a really great board and a lot of help. We have a grant writer, and she's been really helpful. We have a little store that provides a small revenue stream. People can buy pet supplies at significant discounts. As for donations, the past year has been tough, but several of the pet supply companies have really stepped up to the plate.”
No One Is Ever Turned Away
FIDO includes some unique features that other pet food pantries don’t, for example, it offers franchise opportunities. Interested parties in other states must fundraise to secure the approximately $3,000 in start-up costs, but they’ll also have access to the FIDO board of directors, plus mentoring help and an operating template.
During our interview, Nancy gave a little video tour of the FIDO warehouse, and I was surprised at all the choices of pet food and supplies people have to choose from. There are canned foods, grain-free formulas, prescription diets and more. Nancy explained that the goal is to be able to provide whatever diet a pet is currently eating (even if it’s low quality), to prevent gastrointestinal issues and possibly a veterinary visit the pet parent can’t afford.
Nancy also bought an RV dump that she turned into a grain hopper that she uses to fill individual bags with blends of different foods. I asked her how often the food bank is open to the public.
“First and foremost, we don’t turn anyone away,” she replied. “Pet owners get food once a month, and we give them enough to feed their animal for the entire month, which is different from virtually every other food bank and pet food pantry, which are supplement pantries. We’re a full-feed pantry and we have no cutoff.
Other pantries cut people off after so many visits, but we don’t do that. If we were to offer, say, a three-month program, what happens to the person who is out of work for four months? After receiving help for three months, they now have to give their pet up to the shelter because they can no longer feed it? That’s crazy.”
FIDO has about 25 volunteers, most of whom are 65 or older. During the week, the warehouse operates about three hours a day. On food bank day, which is the third Saturday of each month, Nancy and her volunteers give out about 1,000 pounds of pet food an hour!
Rescuing Pets Before They End Up in Shelters
Next, I asked Nancy what she finds most fulfilling about her work with FIDO.
“I think AniMeals is our favorite program,” she answered. “We partner with every senior center in the county, and we home-deliver pet meals alongside Meals on Wheels. It’s the program we love the most, because so many seniors have lost their significant other, and their pet is all they have.
I also love that my whole life has been dedicated to pet care, and dogs in particular. I don't know what my life would have been without them. I've been fortunate enough to be able to care properly for every dog I've ever had and dogs that I showed. I just can't even fathom what it would be like to wake up in the morning and not be able to do that for your pet.”
The service FIDO offers has a direct effect not only on pets, but also on the mental health and family stability of pet owners. As part of her community outreach efforts, Nancy offered her warehouse as a training facility for the Clackamas County K9 Unit.
She wound up with a deputy sheriff on the FIDO board of directors, and the deputy sheriff’s office now has a key to the warehouse and can come in anytime, day or night, to pick up pet food or a pet bed or crate or other supplies when they encounter situations in which a family pet needs assistance. Finally, I asked Nancy what one thing she would like to tell the world about all that she’s learned through her work with her pet food bank.
“Our relationship with our pets is a unique, individual, highly personal one,”she replied.
With that in mind, Nancy would like to see as much emphasis placed on helping people keep their pets as there is on shelter adoptions, because the more we do to keep pets in their homes, the fewer animals end up relinquished to shelters. Programs like FIDO’s AniMeals offer proactive prevention of pets winding up in the shelter.
“I would like the general public and the wonderful people who read your blog to know that there are lots of alternatives to having animals removed from their homes,” Nancy continued. “Let’s think about proactive ways to prevent pets from ending up in shelters in the first place.”
It really is a very different mindset. There are countless well-loved animals in shelters whose humans are without them now, and heartbroken. Those people never wanted that to happen. They never thought they’d have to give up their animal companion. It wound up being their only option.
If you’d like to learn more about Nancy and her Friends Involved in Dog Outreach programs, you can visit her website FIDO, as well as her Facebook and Instagram pages.