22 city-funded food pantries will start offering pet food next week
DSS is putting about $500,000 into dog and cat food at Community Food Connection sites as shelter surrenders rise with living costs.
Photo: The National Guard / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
- Starting Monday, 22 city-funded food pantries will offer dog and cat food under the Community Food Connection program, Gothamist reported.
- Officials put about $500,000 in city funding toward the pet-food stock, part of a wider boost to the program that already funds about 700 pantries.
- DSS Commissioner Erin Dalton said many owners skip their own meals before letting pets go hungry, and that cost pressure is driving shelter surrenders.
- Participating sites span the five boroughs, from New York Common Pantry and Holy Apostles to St. John's Bread and Life and Project Hospitality.
- The city's animal-welfare office already points New Yorkers to Food Help NYC and groups such as ACC and ASPCA for pet supplies when pantries have stock.
Some city-funded food pantries will begin offering pet food next week for the first time, as the Mamdani administration tries to help New Yorkers keep their animals amid high living costs, Gothamist reported Tuesday.
Starting Monday, 22 pantries will stock dog and cat food using about $500,000 in city funding, city officials told Gothamist. The sites are part of the Community Food Connection program, which funds roughly 700 pantries across the five boroughs. The administration boosted that program this year, including the pet-food allocation.
"For many of us, a pet isn't a luxury. It's family. And when budgets get tight, we know people will skip their own meals before they let their animals go hungry, or worse, pressured to give them up," Department of Social Services Commissioner Erin Dalton said in a statement carried by Gothamist.
Officials linked the move to rising demand and crowded animal shelters as owners struggle to feed themselves and their pets. Brands cited for the shelves include Gravy Train, Purina One, 9 Lives and Cat Café. Gothamist published a list of participating pantries and pointed readers to the Food Help NYC map.
Where to look
Sites on Gothamist's list include New York Common Pantry locations in the Bronx and East Harlem, Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen Pantry in Chelsea, St. John's Bread and Life in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Community Help in Park Slope, First United Methodist Church of Jamaica, and Project Hospitality on Staten Island, among others.
The Mayor's Office of Animal Welfare already advises that some local pantries may have pet food and steers residents to Food Help NYC, Animal Care Centers of NYC, the ASPCA's community programs and other groups for supplies. A summer budget write-up in Planetizen noted the FY2027 deal also earmarked new money for pet-food pantry work and spay/neuter expansion — context for this week's pantry rollout, which Gothamist tied to the $500,000 Community Food Connection line.
Anyone seeking a participating site should check Food Help NYC or call the pantry before traveling, since stock can run out.
- Gothamist22 NYC food pantries to start offering pet food
- NYC Mayor's Office of Animal WelfareSupport for People with Pets
- PlanetizenNYC to open city-funded pet food pantry
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