Houston Food Bank to Receive Semi Truckload of 39,900 Pounds of Donated Pet Food – Nearly 190,000 Meals – from PetSmart’s Buy a Bag, Give a Meal™ Program

Truck Delivery Part of PetSmart’s First Wave of Pet Food Donations Will Include 92 Semi Trucks Arriving in 70 Cities Across 31 States and Three Canadian Provinces Delivering a Total of 17 Million Meals to Hungry Pets in Need

--()--PetSmart

What:

 

Houston Food Bank is about to receive its largest pet food donation in its 35-year history – starting with a 53-foot semi truck loaded with 190,000 pet food meals, nearly 40,000 pounds, delivered on Thursday, Aug. 24.

 

The pet food donation is from PetSmart’s Buy a Bag, Give a Meal, where for every bag of dog or cat food purchased online or in its 1,500-plus stores through Dec. 31, 2017, the retailer will donate a meal to a pet in need. Through this historic program, which PetSmart launched in celebration of its 30th anniversary this year, it expects to donate 60 million meals* – nearly 13 million pounds – to pets in need at hundreds of animal welfare agencies across North America, as well as human food banks, pantries and meal programs, where pet food is a rare offering.

 

To get the massive pet food donation to hundreds of agencies in local markets across North America, like the Houston Food Bank, PetSmart is working with nonprofit partner PetSmart Charities, the leading funder of animal welfare in North America, which is teaming up with GreaterGood.org’s Rescue Bank program and Feeding America, two renowned national nonprofit organizations. These organizations are getting the pet food quickly and efficiently to hungry pets in need.

 

Houston Food Bank is a Feeding America member and delivers 83 million nutritious meals a year to hungry people served by 600 agency partners that run food pantries and meal programs in southeast Texas. Now the food bank can help feed hungry pets too!

 

The semi truckload of 50 pallets of pet food will be unloaded and the distribution will begin on Thursday, Aug. 24, to various nonprofit agencies served by the food bank.

 

Two additional semi truckloads of donated pet food from PetSmart will be delivered later this year and into 2018.

 

When:

Thursday, Aug. 22, 10 a.m.–noon

 

Where:

Houston Food Bank

535 Portwall Street

Houston, TX 77029

 

Photo Ops:

 

The unloading of 50 pallets of pet food – 39,900 pounds.

 

Local PetSmart store team helping load up nonprofit agencies’ trucks with the 38-pound bags of donated pet food. These nonprofit agencies operate food pantries and meal programs, where pet food is a rare offering.

 

The massive pet food donation – 50 pallets – nearly 40,000 pounds.

 

Pets sampling the donated pet food.
 

Interviews:

 

Houston Food Bank representative commenting on the local impact of this significant pet food donation.

 

Houston Food Bank agency partners sharing what this donation means to the clients they serve in the local Houston area.

 

PetSmart and PetSmart Charities discussing the Buy a Bag, Give a Meal program and its impact on pets in need.
 

Call to Action:

 

People in the local Houston area can continue to help pets in need through PetSmart’s Buy a Bag, Give a Meal program – buy bags of dog and cat food at PetSmart and the retailer will donate a meal to a pet in need for every bag sold.

For more information on the Buy a Bag, Give a Meal program, please visit petsmart.com/giveameal.

About Houston Food Bank

The Houston Food Bank is a solution to both hunger and food waste. Nationally recognized by Feeding America as Food Bank of the Year in 2015, the Houston Food Bank is the largest source of food for hunger relief charities in 18 southeast Texas counties. Each year, the Food Bank feeds 800,000 individuals through a network of 600 food pantries, soup kitchens, senior centers and other charities. We distribute fresh produce, meat and nonperishables from our warehouse at 535 Portwall, where we also prepare nutritious hot meals for kids in our new state-of-the-art Keegan Kitchen. We rescue food before it reaches the landfill through our Retail Pickup program with area grocery stores. Additional community services include nutrition education, school-based programs and SNAP (formerly food stamps) application assistance. Founded in 1982, the Houston Food Bank is a certified member of Feeding America, the nation’s food bank network, with a four-star rating from Charity Navigator.

Website: houstonfoodbank.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thehoustonfoodbank
Twitter: @houstonfoodbank
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/houstonfoodbank
Snapchat: @houstonfoodbank

About PetSmart®

PetSmart, Inc. is the largest specialty pet retailer of services and solutions for the lifetime needs of pets. At PetSmart, we love pets, and we believe pets make us better people. Every day with every connection, PetSmart’s passionate associates help bring pet parents closer to their pets so they, together, can live more fulfilled lives. This vision impacts everything we do for our customers, the way we support our associates and how we give back to our communities. We employ approximately 55,000 associates, operate more than 1,500 pet stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, as well as more than 200 in-store PetSmart® PetsHotel® dog and cat boarding facilities. PetSmart provides a broad range of competitively priced pet food and products, as well as pet-focused services such as dog training, pet grooming, pet boarding, PetSmart® Doggie Day Camp® and pet adoption. PetSmart, together with non-profits PetSmart Charities® and PetSmart Charities™ of Canada, invite more than 3,000 animal welfare organizations to bring adoptable pets into stores so they have the best chance possible of finding a forever home. Through this in-store adoption program and other signature events, PetSmart has facilitated more than 7.4 million adoptions – more than any other brick-and-mortar organization. The company’s portfolio of digital resources for pet parents includes PetSmart.com, OnlyNaturalPet.com, petMD.com, Pawculture.com, AllPaws, an online pet adoption platform that helps potential pet parents find the perfect pet to adopt based on their home, family and lifestyle, as well as BlogPaws, the world’s first pet blogger and influencer network. Through these digital platforms, PetSmart offers the most comprehensive online pet supplies and pet care information in the U.S. In celebration of its 30th anniversary, PetSmart launched its Buy a Bag, Give a Meal™ program in March 2017. For every bag of cat or dog food purchased March 1 – Dec. 31, 2017, PetSmart will donate a meal to pets in need and expects to donate more than 60 million meals in 2017*. In May 2017, PetSmart acquired Chewy.com, a leading online retailer of pet food and products in the U.S., which operates as an independent subsidiary.

Find PetSmart on Facebook: www.facebook.com/PetSmart
See PetSmart on Instagram: @PetSmart
Follow PetSmart on Twitter: @PetSmart
See PetSmart on YouTube: www.YouTube.com/PetSmart

*Ends 12/31/17. 5 oz. dog food, 1.5 oz. cat food donated to PetSmart Charities to feed dogs and cats in need. See details at petsmart.com/giveameal. The actual number of meals donated is based on dog and cat food bags sold. The meal donation estimate is based on historic sales for similar time periods. No guaranteed amount. Rescue Bank and Feeding America will help distribute a large portion of the pet food donation in the U.S., while four large animal welfare agencies will distribute it in Canada.

About PetSmart Charities®

PetSmart Charities, Inc. is a nonprofit animal welfare organization with a mission to find lifelong, loving homes for all pets by supporting programs and thought leadership that bring people and pets together. In addition to finding homes for almost 500,000 shelter pets each year through its in-store adoption program in all PetSmart stores across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, PetSmart Charities provides funding to non-profits aligned with its mission through four key areas of grant support: Preventing Pet Homelessness; Helping Shelter Pets Thrive; Supporting the Bond Between People and Pets; and Emergency Relief and Disaster Support. Each year, millions of generous PetSmart shoppers help pets in need by donating to PetSmart Charities using the pin pads at checkout registers inside PetSmart stores. In turn, PetSmart Charities efficiently uses 90 cents of every dollar donated and has become the leading funder of animal welfare in North America, donating about $300 million to date. PetSmart Charities, a 501(c)(3) organization, has received the Four Star Rating from Charity Navigator, an independent organization that reports on the effectiveness, accountability and transparency of nonprofits, for the past 14 years in a row -- placing it among the top one percent of charities rated by this organization. To learn more visit www.petsmartcharities.org.

Follow PetSmart Charities on Twitter: @PetSmartChariTs
Find PetSmart Charities on Facebook: Facebook.com/PetSmartCharities
See PetSmart Charities on YouTube: YouTube.com/PetSmartCharitiesInc

Contacts

Golin for PetSmart
Virginia Hock, 469-680-2611
vhock@golin.com
or
PetSmart Media Line:
623-587-2177

Contacts

Golin for PetSmart
Virginia Hock, 469-680-2611
vhock@golin.com
or
PetSmart Media Line:
623-587-2177