NAR has a supply of cat and dog food available for tri-community residents. (Submitted photo/Northern Animal Rescue)

By Derek Cornet

dogs and cats

NAR operating pet food bank for those in need

Mar 20, 2023 | 6:19 PM

Northern Animal Rescue (NAR) is the recipient of a $5,000 grant from Humane Canada.

It’s part of a larger $40,000 donation given to Humane Canada from PetSmart Charities to oversee a pet food bank program. NAR was one of the successful applicants and the organization began distributing pet food in February.

So far, there have been 28 residents who received pet food and some has been sent to Southend and Stanley Mission.

“PetSmart Charities felt there was a need for some type of assistance for people,” said NAR member Joanne Dickson. “Since rebounding from the financial effects of COVID and now inflation, they felt like they wanted to redirect some of their charitable money into a food bank program.”

NAR received the grant last month and, so far, has spent $2,000. Dickson explained NAR had also earlier received a large donation of dog and cat food from Champion Petfoods, so the Humane Canada donation will replenish supplies and help to keep the pet food bank operating longer.

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The program is open to all residents of the tri-communities. Pickups can be made on Wednesday’s at the La Ronge Pound from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. or supplies can be delivered upon request. A request can be made by sending a pet food request form to northernanimalrescue@gmail.com.

“We’re going to see how it goes and we might just make arrangements to meet people at different times,” Dickson said.

“If the 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. doesn’t seem to be working, we might just have people meet when they can. So far, we’ve done mostly deliveries and we’ve also been working with the band’s dog catcher to deliver on-reserve. Our fuel costs have gone up, so we are going to ask people who can pick up the food to come and meet us. We will do deliveries if it is absolutely necessary.”

As a requirement of the grant, NAR will need to spend the money by the end of the year, as well as submit a report saying how many people and pets were impacted.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @saskjourno