CT community steps up to supplement struggling pet food pantry

When Bridgeport Animal Control announced on social media Saturday that its pet food pantry had to temporarily close due to an extremely low supply of food, the public immediately stepped up.

On Monday, the animal control facility had an Amazon truck unload more than 50 boxes of pet food, said Bridgeport Chief Animal Control Officer Jennifer Merenda said. Another truckload brought more than 60 boxes on Tuesday.

“I didn’t expect to get a call from my staff on Monday saying “Hey, our office if full of Amazon boxes.’ And it tracked from what people were posting online that they had boxes and they were coming your way,” Merenda said.

“I know that community is out there. It’s been a long time, but we have built up a good online community in our area of animal lovers and supporters,” she added. “We have tried to make the shelter a better place and provide services, but to see them come out and basically say, ‘We have to fix this.’ (The response) was surprising but then thinking about people that do adopt from us and continue to support us. It’s not that surprising because there are a lot of good people in the animal community.”

The pantry, located at 236 Evergreen St. in Bridgeport, temporarily remains closed but plans to reopen later this week.

Merenda has been in her post as animal control officer since 2016. She said in the past the pantry has closed for a day to two, but this weekend the supply was completely bare and left her no choice but to close.

“We have been experiencing shortages for the last year and half or so,” Merenda said. “That coincides completely with our increase in take of animals and increase in calls. This is the kind of crisis there is in animal sheltering. I think that it coincides with people really struggling economically because of the cost of housing or groceries or both. It’s a perfect storm.

“People are struggling,” she continued. “There is a high demand for the pet food pantry because it does help. It relieves some of that pressure. But because people are struggling, maybe they aren’t buying those extra bags of cat food in their cart and donating them to the food pantry. So, our supplies have been lower, and the demand has been consistently higher. There have been several times over the past year or year and a half where kind of almost down to the ground and narrowly avoided closing because of a few donations here and there. It got to the point last week where the demand was so high and supplies were consistently low.”

Merenda said she posted on Facebook on April 29 that the pantry needed help. She said the post received four comments and 34 shares. On Saturday, the situation had only gotten worse, and she had to make the decision to temporarily close.

“It was bare. All of our storage areas were perfectly clean where we were able to wipe down and mop and got a perfectly clean slate started,” Merenda said. “We can’t have people making the effort to come down here and leaving with nothing for their pets.”

That is when Merenda decided to reach out to the public again on Facebook.

“This time around (the post) got shared over 600 times and there are close to 150 comments on the post,” Merenda said. “I hate that it took closing the food panty temporarily to get this response, but it did get attention. It’s a positive that people are talking about why the food pantry is important and thinking about how the absence of a resource like that can affect community pets. It’s been a struggle and it’s sad we have had to close it temporarily. We will stay closed while we organize everything. We have to get through all of those boxes.”

Merenda said the pantry, which is community led and driven, serves Bridgeport residents that are experiencing financial hardship with the goal is keeping pets in loving homes. She said there are some limitations on how often people can come in fairness to others.

“We see all sorts of reasons and people come to the food pantry,” Merenda said. “You don’t have to give a reason, and we aren’t asking for a W2. People have all sorts of reasons for not being able to feed their pet that month but can still provide a loving home.”

Merenda said the pantry isn’t opening immediately because they don’t want everything gone instantly and have to close again.

“We want a comfortable amount,” Merenda said. “Judging by some emails we have gotten, we should be getting even more help. We’ve had schools and Boys & Girls Clubs asking if they can start pet food drives for us. … I think this was a wake-up call for a lot of people about this important service.”

Merenda said she wants the pantry to remain a reliable service with no closures.

“We are hoping donations will come instead and by the end of the week we can open and stay open. We don’t want to open and close. There are a lot of other food pantries out there and if you aren’t in Bridgeport, contact your local animal control offices and donate to their food pantry.”

Donations can be made from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Bridgeport Animal Control facility at 236 Evergreen St. or online via the pantry’s Amazon Wish List. Dry dog and cat food are the greatest needs.