The Pet Food Pantry of Lafayette since 2016 has been heloing area residents feed their furry family members and avoid owner surrender, a service that’s become increasingly important during the COVID-19 pandemic and after recent natural disasters.
Emily Hamner, pantry founder and operator, had the idea while working with FoodNet, the food bank arm of Catholic Charities of Acadiana. Hamner noticed seniors using their food to feed companion pets after expending their limited budgets or single parents struggling to feed their family’s pet while trying to cover the electrical bill.
No one was exclusively serving the food needs of pets in the community, she found.
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Hamner, who leads her family’s nonprofit, the Pinhook Foundation, decided to launch a pet pantry to help families keep their pets while navigating economic rough patches. Two months later, the 2016 floods ripped through the community and the pantry went from getting its bearings to helping 250 families keep their pets after damage to their homes, she said.
Hamner is a passionate animal lover. She has four rescue cats at home — Brodie, Leo, Maive and Theodore — and her father’s two golden retrievers, Rusty and Ruby, and a host of cats charm visitors to the pantry, which is tucked inside a home that’s used as office space at 200 W. University Avenue.
“Seeing a pet that’s hungry — that breaks my heart. If you can help someone whose pet is their only source of someone to talk to or the only feel good they get out of a day...and feeding that pet keeps them happy, at the end of the day that’s all we want. We want everyone to be happy and healthy in our community,” Hamner said.
“I don’t want to see any more pets euthanized because their family couldn’t afford to feed them,” she said.
The pantry functions through a combination of personal donations from community members and corporate partnerships with companies like PetSmart and Chewy, who typically send donations on an 18-wheeler once a quarter. Other partners, like Acadiana Animal Aid and SpayNation, pass on food when possible, and other businesses act as drop-off points, she said.
Hamner keeps a spreadsheet tracking each family or resident being actively served through the pantry, logging their name, phone number, address, pets and any dietary restrictions or allergies. They typically receive food once a month or every other month.
During the pandemic, Hamner has implemented a more hands off pick-up approach. On pick-up days, the needed food is labeled for the family and set outside on the pantry’s back stairs for collection, she said.
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The pandemic and the upheaval it’s caused for many families has had an obvious impact on people’s ability to afford food for their pets. Hamner said whereas families in the past might have needed a month of food to get them back on their feet, more people have needed extended assistance before reaching stability again.
As of mid-October, the pantry was serving 211 people, she said.
For people with pets, the animals are another member of the family, Hamner said. Keeping them together eases the stress both for the family and for the pets themselves, who may withdraw or suffer undue stress if they were removed to a shelter or rescue, she said.
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“For them to come up, either a dog with a cold wet nose who nudges you to pat them or a cat who comes over and is like, ‘Hey, you want to talk to me?’, that can make the difference for people. It’s a moment of ‘Oh, the world is not so bad.’ This creature needs me, I need this creature and we will make it another day,” Hamner said.
The pet pantry has also stepped up during natural disasters, first after the 2016 floods and most recently after Hurricane Ida, the category 4 hurricane that rocked southeast Louisiana in August, especially areas in the bayou region like Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes.
In the storm’s aftermath, Hamner first received a call from a resident in Larose searching for horse feed and dog and cat food. Then, a call came from a hurricane recovery group who was on the ground providing quick response services to residents and saw a need for pet food. Hamner was the only person to answer their calls.
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She and her husband loaded a truck with existing food from the pantry and spent five days helping communities down La. 1. Since then, she’s been a conduit for local and national donations, partnering with local organizers and recovery groups making deliveries to the region to get the food into the right hands.
“It’s all about partners. Your friends are your biggest resource,” she said.
Each bag or package of canned food is tagged with the pantry’s information so families can call if they need additional help, Hamner said.
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Hammer’s pantry served a similar purpose helping residents in the Lake Charles area after the region was battered by hurricanes Laura and Delta in 2020. She said some Lake Charles-area residents and rural residents impacted by the storm continue to drive to the pantry every few months for assistance because they’re still in a precarious place more than a year later.
“We’re so blessed it didn’t happen to Lafayette, but as our community is strong we need to help those who need the help,” Hamner said.
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Pet Food Pantry of Lafayette helps struggling families feed their furry friends - The Advocate
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