While our primary focus is always the homeless pets in our care, CCHS operates many programs and services to further its mission of ensuring companion animals in the community are cared for. We recognize that caring for pets takes an investment of time - and money - and recent research has shown that "cost of care" is now the biggest barrier to pet ownership. There isn't much we can do to reduce the cost of caring for pets, but when pets are already in loving families, we would hate to see a temporary financial hardship be the thing that tears them apart. That's why our Pet Food Pantry is so important.
With your help, we are able to address one consistent cost in an animal's life: their food. By necessity, our animal-shelter residents are kept on consistent diets, using specific brands and formulas. But when we receive donations of pet food that we can't feed to our animal residents, we're thrilled! It means we can give it back through the Pet Food Pantry. When we share these donations with others, pets and their families get to stay together. Your generous monetary contributions are always needed to keep our doors open to homeless animals, but these in-kind gifts make it possible for us to do more for our community at large.
Unfortunately, right now we're struggling to keep up with the need.
On last Friday alone, we received 24 requests for assistance and could only help four. Hearing about the urgency, a staff member was able to share some donated vouchers and gift cards to try to help just three more people in need. Not even one third of that day's requests had been met. Typically, we supply the pantry with whatever food-donations come in, but right now our community is experiencing a critical need, and we're asking for help to address it.
Generous donations to the Pet Food PantryCan you give pet food to the pantry?
Because monetary contributions given to the shelter are used in the shelter, we only accept in-kind donations for the Pet Food Pantry. That means we can only accept foods, and vouchers or gift cards for foods, to give to those in need.
For the pantry, any kind of pet food will help and the more variety the better! Foods for a variety of species, ages, and specialty diets are a tremendous help, meaning that even the puppy food your dog grew out of - or the new kidney-support diet your cat snubbed - can be given to those who will use it well. The Pet Food Pantry can find a home for:
- Unopened dry pet foods
- Opened dry pet foods, if they remain in their original packaging
- Canned, or otherwise factory sealed, wet pet foods
- Gift cards to pet suppliers (like Prairieland Feeds, Pet-Supply Stores, Chewy, etc) or grocery stores accessible to our area (if they sell pet food!)
Pantry donations waiting to go homeThis is a program we are proud to run, and we've always shared what we can, when we can. Even though there have always been gaps in our pantry inventory, and times when we've been unable to provide support, we don't usually ask for your help to supply the Community Pet Food Pantry. However as pet lovers, and community members, the increase in requests for assistance has been troubling, especially coupled with nationwide statistics on shelter occupancy. We want to do everything we can to keep these pets in their homes, and out of the shelters.
In-kind donations can always be dropped off at the shelter during our open hours, currently Saturday-Sunday 12 PM - 5 PM and Wednesday-Friday 2 PM - 7 PM. If it's easier, you can also ship contributions directly from any retailer to the shelter's address in Champaign. When shipping, it helps to note that your gift is intended for the Pet Food Pantry in any gift messages, or on the invoice, but all the foods we can't use with our own animal residents are diverted there! If you have the capacity, please consider an auto-ship to support the pantry. We run this program whenever we have food to share, and it would be a huge relief to the program to have a more consistent supply.
Thank you for helping to keep pets in their homes!
5/19/25 update: Thank you! An immediate outpouring of support for the pantry has put food on our shelves, and it will go into the hands of many families in need. We wish we could say that this was problem solved, but we expect the high interest in the pantry for the foreseeable future. If you had planned to support with an in-kind gift, please still bring it to the shelter! We operate this program year-round, and we always have someone who needs your help. Whenever you have a partially used bag of dry food, some random cans your pet didn't like, or want to make a purchase to help out your community, we are deeply appreciative of your support. Obviously, things are tight for our pantry right now and we can't guarantee assistance, but if you're a family in need you can reach out to our Humane Educator, and we will try to help.