<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Courtesy of the Los Angeles Daily News at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="http://www.dailynews.com/lifestyle/20131226/animeals-on-wheels-seniors-disabled-get-help-feeding-dogs-and-cats">http://www.dailynews.com/lifestyle/20131226/animeals-on-wheels-seniors-disabled-get-help-feeding-dogs-and-cats</a></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><h1 class="title entry-title cleanprint-title" style="margin: 0px 0px 11.326px; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.2; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); text-rendering: optimizelegibility; font-size: 33px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">‘AniMeals’ on Wheels: Seniors, disabled get help feeding dogs and cats</h1></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If Meals on Wheels didn’t deliver donated dog food, Sherry Scott of San Diego says her golden retriever Tootie would be eating the pasta, riblets and veggie wraps meant for her. But thanks to partnerships between the program for low-income seniors and pet groups across the country, fewer people and pets are going hungry.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After Meals on Wheels volunteers noticed a growing number of clients giving their food away to their furry friends, they started working with shelters and other pet groups to add free pet food to their meal deliveries. Those programs, relying on donations and volunteers, have continued to grow in popularity as seniors began eating better, staying healthier and worrying less about feeding their pets, one group said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><font color="#000000" size="3"><span style="line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://www.mowaa.org/" style="text-decoration: none; -webkit-transition: 0.1s ease-out; transition: 0.1s ease-out;">Meals on Wheels</a> is just one organization serving people who are poor, disabled or elderly, but it has a vast reach. It has teamed up with independently run pet partners in several states, but how many isn’t known, said Jenny Bertolette, spokeswoman for Meals on Wheels Association of America in Alexandria, Va.</span></font></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Partner pet groups will solicit, pick up, pack and get the animal chow to Meals on Wheels or another agency that donates food, volunteers said. Agencies also take pet food to nursing homes, senior centers or community centers.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Those who qualify for Meals on Wheels or similar programs are almost always eligible for a free pet food program.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Pets are so <a href="http://www.banfieldcharitabletrust.org%0d/" style="text-decoration: none; -webkit-transition: 0.1s ease-out; transition: 0.1s ease-out;">important</a> to our seniors. They are social workers, depression counselors, a lifeline for a lot of them,” said Charles Gehring, CEO of Columbus, Ohio-based <a href="http://www.lifecarealliance.org/" style="text-decoration: none; -webkit-transition: 0.1s ease-out; transition: 0.1s ease-out;">LifeCare Alliance</a>, a nonprofit providing meals and other services to low-income seniors.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It is common for low-income seniors or people with disabilities to feed their dogs or cats instead of themselves, Gehring said. The nonprofit started a pet food giveaway program five years ago that serves more than 1,000 animals a month.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">LifeCare Alliance launched the program after taking a survey and learning many of the Columbus area’s seniors had pets. Most were low income, didn’t drive and were isolated. Gehring said 70 percent reported not seeing anyone besides their Meals on Wheels driver each week.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The pets are so important to them. But people need to eat what we give them. Pets don’t need salisbury steak,” Gehring said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Both Scott and Timothy Goddard, 34, of Columbus, Ohio, live on just hundreds of dollars a month.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Goddard, who is disabled and has HIV, said if he didn’t get free food for his 2-year-old black Lab, Max, he couldn’t have a dog at all.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“He’s my companion. I got no kids, so he’s my everything,” he said. “We take walks, do everything together.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For Scott, critical food deliveries arrive from Meals on Wheels in San Diego, which partnered with <a href="http://www.animalcenter.org/" style="text-decoration: none; -webkit-transition: 0.1s ease-out; transition: 0.1s ease-out;">Helen Woodward Animal Center</a> 15 years ago to add pet food drop-offs. Woodward had started one of the first pet food programs in the nation in 1984, called AniMeals, which expanded its reach when the agencies partnered.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Animals provide companionship and love,” said Luanne Hinkle, director of development for the San Diego Meals on Wheels. So when Woodward suggested the partnership, “we jumped right in.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">AniMeals started with 10 pets, and today there are 250, Woodward Animal Center spokeswoman Jessica Gercke said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The partnership formed after “a (Meals on Wheels) volunteer discovered one of her clients was sharing her delivered food with her cats, sacrificing her own health,” she explained.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It takes 40 volunteers to collect 3,000 pounds of donated dry food and about 3,200 cans of wet food for dogs and cats each month.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The biggest challenge is getting donations, Gercke said. Despite bins in pet stores and markets where people can donate, “there is never a time we don’t need more food.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some groups and shelters offering pet food programs nationwide have gotten a boost from <a href="http://www.banfieldcharitabletrust.org%0d/" style="text-decoration: none; -webkit-transition: 0.1s ease-out; transition: 0.1s ease-out;">Banfield Charitable Trust</a> grants, offered since 2007. It’s given funding to a social services department in North Carolina and<a href="http://www.lsr14.org/" style="text-decoration: none; -webkit-transition: 0.1s ease-out; transition: 0.1s ease-out;">LifeSpan Resources</a> in New Albany, Ind., a nonprofit providing information and assistance to seniors and the disabled, as it tries to get its program up and running.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Scott, a former tennis teacher who lives on less than $800 a month, has been receiving Meals on Wheels deliveries for four years and pet food from AniMeals for about one. She has to save up for three or four months just to take Tootie to the groomer.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The pet food program is a lifesaver,” she said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mary Birrell, volunteer and board member of the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, drops off cat food at a home as part of the “AniMeals,” or Meals on Wheels for pets program where volunteers use their own cars and gas to deliver free dry cat or dog food to people who can’t afford it. </span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 11.326px;"><img src="cid:F6FB5767-4B9F-4E02-B154-8189D005B772" alt="image.jpeg" id="F6FB5767-4B9F-4E02-B154-8189D005B772" width="565" height="400"></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------<br><br><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"There's room at the top they are telling you still.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But first you must learn to smile as you kill,</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">- John Lennon</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>