Growing pet food bank wants to open two new hubs

A food bank for pets needs two more bases because "demand just keeps growing", its founder has said.

A Helping Paw, based in Northumberland, provides food parcels for up to 400 pets a month, compared with 100-150 animals a year ago.

The charity already has storage and collection points in Ashington, Cramlington and Whitley Bay, but would like to open hubs in Blyth and Newcastle.

Founder Tyesha Muncaster, 26, said: "We have had more and more requests from those areas, so it makes sense to expand our service further."

A Helping Paw was set up in 2022 by Ms Muncaster after she put a post on social media offering to give away cat food she did not need.

"The response was unbelievable and it just went from there," she explained.

The service is collection only, so if someone is struggling they can message the charity, which will then provide an emergency food parcel for a dog, cat and most other pets.

"A lot of the people we help don't drive and so the more centres we have, the more people we are able to help," Ms Muncaster said.

"We just need a room or a portacabin, a place where we can store pet food and distribute it to people once a week, we can pay a small fee but it wouldn't be much."

She said she wanted to "help as many pets as we can because people shouldn't have to rehome their pets because they're struggling financially".

The charity is also looking for more helpers.

Volunteer Nicole Redpath said A Helping Paw was "a real team effort".

"It's made all the more worthwhile knowing we're helping so many pets have full tummies," she added.

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