Pictured are Rambo and Honey, dogs of two staff members at the Chautauqua County Humane Society. Submitted photo

Feeding the hungry doesn’t apply just to people — area pets need food, too.

The Chautauqua County Humane Society is partnering with the James Prendergast Library to fill that need. The humane society will host a drive-through pet pantry today from 2-5 p.m. in the library parking lot, 509 Cherry St., Jamestown. Pet owners are invited to drive through the parking lot to receive the food at no charge.

Brian Papalia, Chautauqua County Humane Society partnership director, said this is the second event of its kind. The first was held at the Chautauqua Mall last year, which was very successful.

Papalia said the event has been made possible due to a grant through the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation.

“There is a definite need,” he said. “We work with The Salvation Army’s food pantry on a pet pantry project and then we have one here at the shelter. We have seen, last year in 2020, it was about 25,000 pounds that was distributed — the majority of that going through The Salvation Army’s pantry. We know that sometimes people can’t always get to those locations, so we wanted to try to do something where we get out into the community and see if we can help even more people.”

Papalia said the process is easy: People can pull into the parking lot, tell the attendants how many pets they have and they will receive 8 pounds of food per cat and 18 pounds of food for each dog.

“If they have multiple pets, obviously they get that number in multiples,” he said. “We’re also encouraging this not only for folks that might be having a little bit of a hard time with money right now but also those folks who are taking care of what we call community cats or cats without owners. If they need some help with food, we’re just trying to help as many animals as we can.”

Papalia said there are various reasons why the Chautauqua County Humane Society has undertaken this process, one of which being a desire to keep pets in their current homes.

“It is something we’ve really worked hard at,” he said. “We want the pets to be able to stay in the homes. We don’t want people to have or make that decision on whether they need to get medicine or food for themselves or for their pets. It’s in the best interest of the pet and the owner, especially through the COVID pandemic. You need that companionship, they need that companionship and this is just one of those efforts to help keep the pets in the home, and keep everybody healthy and mentally sane.”

Papalia said community members can also reach out throughout the year if they need assistance with pet food. He said there has been some difficulty in getting cat food in particular for everyone due to national shortages. However, the humane society has been giving donations through Purina in Dunkirk and was able to utilize the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation for today’s event.