TEAC teams with humane society on pet food assistance
While walking through the food pantry with one of her clients, Joyce Hunt, executive director of The Emergency Assistance Center in Northfield, distinctly remembers the woman’s interest in tuna.
“She was asking how many cans of tuna she could have,” Hunt said. “I remarked ‘you must really love tuna.’ She said she actually hated tuna but wanted to get tuna to feed her cat.”
Hunt said it became clear that clients with pets were willing to forgo food for themselves to make sure their furry friends were fed.
“I realized this was a problem we needed to solve,” she said. “I’m sure she wasn’t the only one doing something like this, and we want to make sure our clients have plenty of food for themselves.”
Hunt said the local Lion’s Club has offered pet food donations for a while and said TEAC, along with multiple food pantries in the area, have partnered up with the Humane Society of Summit County to make sure donations of pet food are available.
According to the humane society’s website, the organization donated more than 50,000 pounds of pet food through their pet food pantry to Summit County residents in need last year.
“We are so grateful for the ways the humane society has helped us,” Hunt said. “We have a lot of elderly clients, and their pets mean everything to them so we are happy we can help them in any way possible.”
Hunt said the humane society delivers dog food, cat foot, kitty litter and litter boxes to TEAC.
“Sometimes they will even have collars and leashes to give out,” she said. “One of our homeless folks who comes here has a dog and his dog means everything to him. His dog is his security and companion. When our clients come in and see our pet food, they often want to flock to it because they want to make sure they don’t leave without it. This is touching the lives of a lot of people who have pets.”
Anyone who wants to help can donate bags of dry dog and cat food of any brand or size to the Humane Society of Summit County at 7996 Darrow Rd., Twinsburg, or visit summithumane.org/resources/ pet-food-assistance to make a monetary donation that will be used to purchase and distribute pet food to participating food pantries.
Hunt said TEAC also accepts direct donations of dry dog or cat food.
“Often someone who has had a pet pass away will donate left over pet food to us,” Hunt said. “We re-bag it into smaller packages to make sure there is enough for everyone.”
TEAC is located at 9199 Olde 8 Rd., Suite C, in Northfield. They can be reached at 330-467-7945 and more information can be found at teacenter.org.