Emily Marthaler and Collin Stewart adopted a 3-year-old cat together named Kevin, but with the cost of food on the rise, ensuring Kevin has enough to eat has been difficult.

“We just got out of college, we moved to the Cities so we’re still trying to make money and get things rolling, so having something else that’s kind of covered for us is helping a lot right now,” said Marthaler, 23.

In honor of Pet Hunger Awareness Day, two nonprofits announced Tuesday that they are banding together with eight local food shelves to address issues of food insecurity for both people and pets in the Twin Cities. The Animal Humane Society and Second Harvest Heartland partnership will provide pet resources to “keep people and pets together, meeting the needs of the whole family,” according to the organizations.

On Tuesday at Neighborhood House in St. Paul, the two organizations, alongside PetSmart Charities, distributed cat food, dog food and grocery items to community members for free.

“At Animal Humane Society, we believe pets are family, and Second Harvest Heartland does, too,” chief community engagement officer at Animal Humane Society Sunnie Kaufmann-Paulman said.

The Animal Humane Society has been providing pet food to community partners including CLUES, the Salvation Army, Neighborhood House and more for several years.Second Harvest Heartland is in partnership with more than 1,100 food shelves and hunger-relief programs in Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

“Together, the largest animal welfare organization in the state and one of the largest food banks in the country are helping to end hunger for people and pets here in Minnesota,” Kaufmann-Paulman said.

Adding pet food to existing system

One of the challenges the Animal Humane Society has been experiencing, Kaufmann-Paulman said, is that their infrastructure is small.

Their staff have had to drive food to different locations for distribution events, but partnering with Second Harvest Heartland, which already has a food-distribution process in place, will ease the burden on their team.

The two share eight food shelf partners where visitors can access food for their pets as well as the rest of their families: Joyce Uptown Food Shelf (3041 Fremont Ave. S., Minneapolis), Feeding Frogtown (685 W. Minnehaha Ave., St. Paul), Salvation Army (1019 Payne Ave., St. Paul), Salvation Army (401 W. Seventh St., St. Paul), Neighborhood House (179 Robie St. E., St. Paul), Neighborhood House (1293 E. Maynard Drive, St. Paul), Merrick Food Shelf (1669 Arcade St., St. Paul) and CLUES (797 E. Seventh St., St. Paul).

“It only made sense to align with Second Harvest Heartland, a fellow nonprofit organization that believes in helping people in crisis find stability,” Kaufmann-Paulman said.

Neighborhood House President Janet Gracia said pet food is one of the items most frequently requested by community members.

“Pets play an important role in a family,” she said. “It’s not optional that they get fed.”

Appreciative pet owners

Community member Jessica Báez came to Neighborhood House for the event Tuesday with her two sons Miguel, 3, Daniel, 1, and her new puppy, Pachi.

“It’s good to get free pet food because we’re going through a situation and I think it’s good for my sons to have a dog and to be able to get extra help with food,” Báez said.

Tabitha Ewart, community outreach manager for the Animal Humane Society, helped visitors load up the big bags of dog and cat food.

“I think for too long, animal welfare and human services have been really siloed,” Ewart said. “This is an opportunity for us to create a model for other agencies to partner together, to use their individual strengths to create better wrap-around services for the population.”

Brenda Zapata, who recently got a kitten after her cat passed away, said she found out about Tuesday’s event through her sister. The donated food is going to help nourish her new kitten.

“You know, there’s days you can’t afford cat food, it’s getting up there,” Zapata said.

Along with food distribution, the Animal Humane Society offers temporary pet housing for those experiencing homelessness for up to 60 days at no cost, as well as low-cost vet services and other resources in partnership with community organizations.

In the next year, the two nonprofits aim to distribute 50,000 pounds of pet products through their food shelf partners.

The partnership will allow those food shelves to stock dog food, cat food and cat litter along with traditional grocery items for the foreseeable future.

“This is really a tough time for a lot of people. We’ve seen such a growth in food shelf visits in the last few years, so helping neighbors feed their pets is one more thing we can do,” Second Harvest Heartland communications specialist Samantha Solberg said.

For more information on how to find food or donate, visit hungersolutions.org/find-help/ or animalhumanesociety.org/resource/free-pet-food-distribution- locations.