PetRescue's Food Donation Program
Helping to feed Australia’s vulnerable pets
PetRescue's Food Donation Program aims to provide a welcome reprieve to Australian rescue organisations, local community organisations and families in crisis who are struggling to provide food for their pets.
Thanks to our major partners, we’ve created a national food donation program that delivers millions of dollars worth of free food to vulnerable pets.
We facilitate a program that ensures food is delivered wherever it is needed the most; to the right place, at the right time for hundreds of rescue and community outreach organisations across Australia.
Who do we help?
Food is donated to support pets in need, including via PetRescue member rescue organisations, community groups supporting pet owners, councils, vets, and individual community pet carers.
Our priority is to help those pets that are most at-risk and organisations that are most in need of support at the time food becomes available.
We prioritise allocation based on a number of factors, including:
- Organisations reaching vulnerable or at-risk pets who have fewer avenues of support within their local community
- Where the demand is most urgent at the time, the food becomes available
- Groups that support the broader community and at-risk pets
- Active PetRescue members - based on pets listed and marked as adopted within the last 12 months
- Type of product and quantities available at the time of donation
- Accessibility, delivery hub storage capacity, and location
How it Works
PetRescue’s Food Donation Program runs a rolling state-by-state distribution.
We aim to distribute to each state at least once a year to ensure we are consistently delivering food to organisations in need right across the country.
Please note that these food donation drives are not guaranteed and are dependent on a number of factors, including the availability of suitable warehouses to deliver food to and the availability of products for donation.
In order to ensure that the allocation is fair, we have a streamlined application process for distributing food donations.
For every round of donations, as pet food becomes available from PetRescue’s partners, an ‘expression of interest' form will be sent out via email to the main contact listed for your organisation on PetRescue.
To be eligible for donation(s), the form must be completed within the specified time frame. There will be a new form sent, which must be completed, for each round of donations.
Our team will take into consideration a number of factors, such as the location of your organisation, the amount and type of product available and whether or not your organisation is actively listing pets on PetRescue’s adoption platform.
Once ‘Expressions of Interest’ have closed, the PetRescue team will reach out directly to the contact listed on the request to advise them of their allocated donations and coordinate delivery.
Delivering to the right place at the right time
Working with our major partners, there is also the opportunity to facilitate donations with immediate need on an individual basis. These ad-hoc donations are dependent on stock availability and a suitable delivery hub. The PetRescue team will work with your organisation to establish a suitable location to deliver to.
Suitable delivery locations must:
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Be a factory, warehouse, depot or retail/shelter (or similar) facility that regularly accepts b-double or single trucks
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Be able to accept and store multiple pallets (one pallet = 1.8m high by 1.1m long and wide) until collection; and
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Have a forklift and/or trolley jack available on site
If your organisation is in need of urgent food donations, you can get in touch with us to register a request for support via members@petrescue.org.au. Please let us know what type of food your group requires and the delivery location.
For more information about our food donation program, please reach out to us via members@petrescue.org.au.
Happy dogs in WA indigenous communities receive a year's supply of food.
Read more about PetRescues Food Donations drives here.
Rescue kitties were purr-ty excited to be doing their ones and twos on some fancy kitty litter.