Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

Thank you to everyone who donated to our September Pet Food Drive for the Dr. John P. Ruffing VMD Pet Food Pantry. We had to cancel our distribution in September due to low inventory. Marie and I spent the entire month working hard to resupply the pantry. It has been exhausting.

But successful to a slightly humbling degree – unfortunately, we are going to have to reduce the amount of food we distribute to compensate for the increase in the number of people registering. And it was a LOT of work to secure the donations this time, I suspect it will be more difficult next time as the economy tightens.

According to an industry newsletter, pet food prices increased from June to July by .5%. Current pet prices remain 24% above 2021 levels and 28.3% higher than pre-pandemic 2019 prices. 

I am not an economist by any means, but I continue to wonder about the impact of tariffs on metals on pet food. Nearly every type of canned/wet food uses metal – tin or aluminum or steel, I believe. Even plastic containers have aluminum foil lids. And that’s just a direct cost, not considering the impact on ingredients or dry food packaging/ingredients, the impact on the production companies, transportation, staffing at stores, etc.

So back to the food drive. The response was lower than we have experienced. But thanks to a match from the F. Dok Initiatives, we should be able to provide a slightly lower quantity of food through December.

373 pounds of dry food were donated by the public.

144.5 pounds were donated from the Animal Friends Chow Wagon (we can access 2x/year)

That’s a grand total of 517.5 pounds of dry food.

We also received about 60 cans of wet food (see!)

We received financial donations of about $700 and a match from F. Dok Initiatives for a total of $1500 plus one $50 Chewy gift card.

We also had seven new caretakers and households sign up in this period of time. Registration is at bit.ly/PetFolxPetFoodPantry

The support of the F. Dok Initiatives means we will be able to get through December as we plan to stock up as much as possible this month.

The very best thing you can do is to make a donation and/or organize a pet food drive of any size – at work, place of worship, a youth organization, book club, a festival, whatever.

Other ways to help

• If you or someone you know has extra or unused pet food, perhaps due to a diet change, we can take partial donations.
• If you or someone you know works for a pet store or other retailer that sells pet food, ask them about the process to request donations – it is usually much more successful if an employee or a regular customer asks. I’ve already registered us with every local store, but so has every other organization. We are small so even if there are 2 bags available to donate, that’s a big help.
• Invite Gertie to your event. She’s a festive seasonal orange color with cool stickers and interesting secret compartments. If you incorporate a pet food drive into your event, we can bring Gertie along for folks to check her out and fill her with donations.
• Join our pet food drive organizing team. It is a lot of work that takes us away from the other tasks. I think it might be fun to do something with “a can of cranberry sauce or green beans PLUS a can of cat food”
  • Fun fact: cats can safely eat cooked green beans and cranberries, but NOT cranberry sauce
• Share your own ideas.

Thank you so much to everyone who donated. Your support is helping a lot of your neighbors and many, many cats and critters. Over 70 households and caretakers are registered with us – most on the Northside and in the McKees Rocks area communities. But we have folx in McKeesport, Arnold, and Moon Township.

Thanks to our volunteers (register to volunteer at bit.ly/PLCVolunteer) we are able to deliver throughout Allegheny County.

Yes, you can ALWAYS donate using these tools

GoFundMe bit.ly/GivePghCatFolx

Venmo @PittsburghLGBTQ

Paypal.me/PittsburghLGBTQ

Chewy Wishlist bit.ly/TheChewyList

Amazon Wishlist bit.ly/TheRuffList

Physically bring donations to the patio bins behind my house – the GPS address is 1440 Faulsey Way – its a parking pad so don’t look for a housenumber sign. Look for 3 patio bins across from a big empty field. And a big orange Land Rover.