Local Animal Lovers Help Starving Pets with New Food Pantry

A soon-to-be food pantry in Lincoln Square will also help the neighborhood’s hungry pets. 

Two volunteers are starting the Lincoln Square Friendship Center, a food pantry in its fundraising stage. Now, two more have joined the effort and will collect food for the area's furry friends. 

The hunger relief charity Feeding America estimates aren’t sure where their next meal will come from. And with 5 to 10 percent of the nation's homeless population owning pets, humans aren’t the only ones going hungry.

“People are giving up their animals because they can’t afford the food,” said Dara Salk, who lives in Northcenter and works in Ward 47 Ald. Ameya Pawar’s office. “They’re just there for you and they cannot get up and get their own food. If we don’t take care of them, who will?”

Salk, along with volunteer Betzi Poole, are heading the pet side of the food pantry, which hopes to be open by the end of 2013.

The two have already received pledges from residents and businesses, but some are having a mixed reaction to the mission. Salk said critics are asking why volunteers are helping animals while people still go hungry. 

There’s a simple answer for that, Poole said, “You can do both; animals are family, too.”

For Poole, starting the pantry has a more personal connection. Three months ago, Poole lost her childhood dog, a Black Labrador.

“This is something I can do in memoriam of her,” she said. 

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Lincoln Square won’t house the only pet food pantry on the North Side, and is modeling itself after one in Edgewater, Care for Real.

The center hands out pet food once a month and usually runs out of cat food within the first hour, volunteer Patti Colandrea said. 

“We feed over 200 animals a month,” she said. “A lot of these people would skip a meal for themselves so they could feed their pet.”

Colandrea started the pet section of Care for Real’s pantry in 2011, when a New Year’s resolution motivated her to contribute more in the Edgewater neighborhood.  

Much like the future pet food pantry, Colandrea relies on donations from local businesses and residents. She’s owned the Bark Bark Club, a dog grooming, boarding and daycare facility near the food pantry, since 2001. 

Salk and Poole plan on asking local shops to put donation boxes in their stores asking for overstocked or almost out-of-date food. They’ll collect the goods once a month and let pantry clients come in to take food for their pets. 

Meghan Bush and Heidi Gutierrez, who are heading the Lincoln Square Friendship Center, were more than enthusiastic about adding pets to those they plan to help with the pantry. It’s no coincidence that the two are also animal lovers, with dogs in both families.

Salk and Poole also have pets. Poole’s two cats—named Iggy and Ms. Olive Avocado —join her and her husband Jim, who also works for Pawar.

Salk’s dog and cat are part of a long history of animals in the family.

“We know how much we love our animals and we can’t imagine thinking at night, do I feed the cat or the kid?” she said.

Read more: 

• New Food Pantry to Help Lincoln Square's Hungry Population
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• Local Musicians Help New Food Pantry Become Reality