CANIDAE Pet Food Donations

9/22/2008

from goskagit.com

An unexpected bounty of pet food arrived for Skagit Meals on Wheels at the Mount Vernon Senior Center earlier this month.

CANIDAE pet food representative Courtney Amerine of Bellingham gathered samples of food products the company would otherwise have discarded and dropped them off at the center.

“It is a wonderful donation,” said Senior and Nutrition Program coordinator Jody Fraser, who oversees the Meals on Wheels program. “With extra food for their pets, our seniors won’t have to give up their own meal.”

Lindy Christofferson of Skagit Dog Wash in Mount Vernon said Amerine came in her store to show her samples of the new formula of pet food. She didn’t know what she would do with the old samples, other than throw them away.

“She had boxes and boxes of these little packets that we hand out for free,” Christofferson said, who suggested donating the samples to the Meals on Wheels program.

In a story published last month in the Skagit Valley Herald, Fraser talked about needing food for pets of Meals on Wheels participants older than 60. She had discovered that some senior citizens were sharing their meals with pets, or buying pet food and going without themselves.

Fraser said a lot of clients won’t admit to the practice, but they “will feed their pets before they feed themselves.”

“It makes me cry,” said Christofferson, who owns a Newfoundland (“160 pounds of love”). “I feel the same way about my dog. I’d feed him before I feed myself. I truly understand.”

After suggesting the donation, Christofferson said Amerine went a step further and gathered samples from all of the company’s representatives in the area. “It was great,” she said.

Amerine didn’t know exactly how much she dropped off, but thought it was about 30 boxes. She said CANIDAE uses all natural, human-grade ingredients that are formulated for dogs and cats and offered by several merchants in Skagit County.

Fraser said the 30 boxes of samples each contained either 70 packages for cats or 54 for dogs. She figured a sample might be enough for a meal for a cat, but it would take a couple samples for a dog.

Out of the 200 households served by the Meals on Wheels program, Fraser said about 70 have pets. Of those, about 30 participants will benefit from this donation.

“A box will last a cat several weeks,” she said.

The Meals on Wheels program has received other donations, too. Fraser said some people are bringing a bag of catfood a month, others bring in dogfood.

“It’s turned out really, really good,” Fraser said about the increased interest in donating pet food, but she didn’t know who to thank for the CANIDAE donation.

“I had no idea,” she said. “I didn’t know where it came from. It was quite a surprise.”