As Emily Turpin traveled around Calloway County with her blue Chow Chow, Cobalt, she filled seven blessing boxes each week and began to notice that people left bags of pet food alongside their canned goods.
Those bags of pet food left the blessing boxes as quickly as they arrived. The pandemic revealed the needs of people struggling to feed their families, including their pets.
But Turpin said the bags were just too big. “I was like, ‘I wish we had just one box for pets, and we could put it at the dog park because it’s in a central location. Lots of people walk through or go to the park.’”
Turpin, a volunteer with the Calloway County Collective, talked with Collective founder Mary Scott Buck about how to turn that idea into reality. With the help of Murray artist Justin Roberts and several businesses, Turpin’s idea came to fruition in late January. A pet blessing box, called The Kibble Cottage, was placed at the front of the dog park entrance at Murray’s Central Park.
Turpin knew the need was more significant than a single bag of dog food or a can of cat food left in a blessing box. What she didn’t realize was how widespread the need truly was for pet food and supplies. Sadly, this need doesn’t seem to be a new problem.
According to a 2017 research study in Anthrozoos, a multidisciplinary journal of the interactions of people and animals, researchers found that when people did not have pet food, they shared their human food with their pets.
In Murray, Turpin and Buck knew the animal blessing box could make a difference. Turpin began contacting pet food companies such as Purina, Chewy, Cat’s Pride, and others to ask for pet supplies. She emailed and sent social media messages. The responses came back almost immediately. Turpin collected $330 by the end of the first week and used that money to shop clearance pet supplies, such as food, toys, and bedding, at local stores. “I had stuff delivered to my house,” Turpin said. “Within 48 hours, one of the groups sent out stuff. So it was like, ‘OK, I now have 30 bags of food at my house for the animals; what am I going to do with it?”
Turpin quickly created a page where people could contact her if needs existed. As word spread through social media, Turpin found herself meeting people in store parking lots to collect and to give away food. Donors also sent items through the Calloway County Collective’s Amazon Wish List, which, Buck said was a great way to contribute without having to go out and shop or drop off items while trying to follow social distancing protocols.
Many of the donations from the public began with four-pound bags. Turpin and Buck looked at their Amazon Wish List and decided that they could ask people to buy the larger bags of food. Volunteers at the Collective office began dividing dog food, cat litter, and other supplies into gallon-sized plastic storage bags in order to meet the needs of more families.
“And the wonderful thing is, all of this is being used,” Buck said. “It’s going to someone.”
Turpin said she took supplies to the Kibble Cottage 45 to 50 times in the first 30 days, but people would still call and say that the box was empty.
“It was new, and of course, a lot of people were using it. The information was getting out there. Since it was so new and so many people were in need of it, it was being emptied every single day.”
As the pace has slowed, Buck said other people in the community have continued dropping off pet food donations on top of what Turpin and the Collective have purchased with the financial contributions. PetSense, a Murray pet supply store, donated 80 bags of food in plastic sacks, and Turpin said those bags left within an hour of the store posting the donation on their Facebook page. Another person consistently donates a tub of food, which also doesn’t last long.
“I knew that it was needed, but I think I never understood how much that it was needed,” Turpin said.
When Turpin or volunteers place the food into the Kibble Cottage, each bag contains a label with the brand and expiration date. She explained that those items help a pet owner make the best decision for their pet and that having an expiration date helps the owner in case of a recall.
“I work five days a week, and then I do this,” Turpin said. “I’ve reached out to different groups in different places, … because you never know who will donate and I think, maybe if I tell them (about the box) that maybe they won’t donate…but it might give someone else the idea to maybe start a box in their community.”
Nationally, groups are addressing pet food insecurity. The Massachusetts Pet Food Task Force launched in March of 2020 when animal welfare groups in Boston found out that people needed help to supply food for their pets during the pandemic. According to the Pet Food Task Force, more than 130 human food pantries and more than 130 retailers help supply food to the shelters and rescues in Massachusetts.
In Seattle, the humane society has partnered with GreaterGood.org, a national nonprofit organization, to create a distribution hub that provides pet food and supplies to those in need. Nationally, PetSmart Charities partnered with Feeding America to commit $10 million to fight pet food insecurity.
Even though the pandemic seems to be waning, the need remains. Turpin said she estimates items stay in the Kibble Cottage box for less than six hours. They have not been able to track the number of people who have picked up food and supplies.
“I have gone back within the hour, and half the stuff I put in was already gone,” Turpin said. “But stuff gets added to it, whether you know it or not, and that’s kind of my favorite thing. I like going back after a little bit to see other people have added things. I have a friend who was like, ‘Oh, I was at the park, and I saw someone get some stuff from your box,’ and I went and checked it – they were putting stuff in.”
The Kibble Cottage runs on the honor system. Turpin said she tries to limit the number of items that are placed in the box at any one time. For instance, she might only leave a bag or two of dog food. The food is also packaged into plastic gallon storage bags to deter people who might take advantage by returning a bag of food to a store for a refund that they don’t deserve.
Besides the Kibble Cottage, the Calloway County Humane Society also has maintained a pet food pantry for the last ten years. Kathy Hodge, the executive director, said her office talked with Murray-Calloway County Need Line about the community’s needs and found that people were feeding their animals human food rather than pet food to save money.
“Most of the people we have helped, up until now, were in some type of crisis,” Hodge said. “Maybe it was someone who had been applying for disability, and they didn’t have income.”
During the pandemic, many people lost their jobs or had their hours significantly reduced, and Hodge said that they had noticed more needs. Typically, the Humane Society pet food pantry helps about 30-40 families every six months.
Hodge said people who used the pantry also needed spay and neuter certificates or vet care assistance. “We don’t want people to give up their animals,” Hodge said.
Between the Humane Society pet food pantry and the Kibble Cottage, pet owners in Murray and Calloway County should not have to choose between their own food and feeding their pets. Turpin offered a solution for future growth to address pet food insecurity in the area.
“I think it would be neat to see a few smaller ones,” Turpin said of future pet blessing boxes. “Maybe some paired with our locations in the county because people don’t always make it into town, and they don’t always have the gas. The human blessing boxes are certainly being used, so I can imagine the need is there. A lot of people have pets, and they probably could use a little help with that too.”
Throughout the past year of working to provide a solution to the community’s problems, Buck said the pandemic had brought awareness to issues such as hidden poverty, including food insecurity for people and pets.
“I think that’s one really amazing thing that has happened with all of this – people are now more aware of other people’s situations,” Buck said. “It’s built a bridge between the haves and the have nots, and I think that has really made a big difference. People really do care and want to help, and then there are the people who would not necessarily have asked for help. The one thing that this has done is made it OK for people to admit that they need a little bit of help – for some people, that’s really hard. That’s the neat thing about the blessing boxes; you don’t have to admit that you’re struggling…you can take what you need and leave what you can.”
