Shop donates 215 pet food parcels to food banks

A pet shop has gone the extra mile to help struggling animal lovers by donating pet food parcels to food banks.

Purdy’s Pet Shop in Coventry has been putting together the parcels for the last 11 months after hearing from owners who were struggling to feed their pets.

With help from customers’ donations, the shop puts a week’s worth of pet food in a bag and sends them to food banks in the city for people to collect.

Since launching the scheme, the team has donated about 215 pet food parcels and have set a target of 250 by Christmas.

Rebecca Harrington, owner of Purdy’s Pet Shop, told BBC Radio CWR she was inspired by knowing there were people and pets “out there struggling”.

“They’ve got to make a decision sometimes on whether they feed themselves or their pets,” she said.

“My staff and I just thought this isn’t right and we wanted to do something about it.”

Ms Harrington reached out to charity The Trussell Trust after customers asked whether there were any food banks in the area that provided pet food.

The organisation told her it was not something they did regularly but said they were happy to take guidance from her.

The pet store now liaises with the trust and food banks to provide the pet food parcels.

She said people could ask about the parcels at a food bank and volunteers would contact the pet shop, which would send out a parcel within a few days.

Ms Harrington praised her regular shoppers for their “amazing” donations, adding that she was confident they could reach their target of 250 by the end of the festive period.

“We’d love to reach 250 for Christmas. I think we can do it if people help,” she added.

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