In the spirit of the season, I felt it was the right time to write about something that has been weighing on my mind and heart for a long time. My family and I have been through many more hardships over the years than I care to recount but it has given us a much wider perspective on many things as well. We have been very fortunate to live in such a nice community here in Franklin that when we were at our lowest and couldn’t even afford to buy food for ourselves there were numerous programs, churches and free pantries to help us out when we most needed it. For that we will always be eternally grateful.
However, during those times we also had our fuzzy “children” that we were taking care of as best as we could but it was very difficult to do so. While we found that there were many ways locally to get food for people, we unfortunately found very few ways to get any kind of needed pet supplies, most especially pet food, during these times. We were lucky enough to have made it through eventually but it was a real struggle during those times to take care of our fuzzy “children.”
Since we’ve gotten back on our feet we have been trying to help out other people in this same situation whenever we can. We’ve met so many people here locally that while they are getting help with food for themselves and their human children, they are still struggling to feed their pets. I’ve been doing a lot of research on the matter and there’s something that I believe could be a real benefit for our community and it would allow for everyday people to be able to help each other without needing direct ties to an official program. A free pet food and supply pantry. These are exactly like what they sound like. They are a small free pantry box built somewhere locally that people can put pet food and pet supplies in for people in need to take. I truly believe that this would benefit so many people in our community from the homeless who have pets to the people who just need a bit of extra help to get by.
We’ve met so many people that love this idea but none of us had the means or know how to get this idea to a reality. I’m writing this in hopes that there are some of you out there in our community that will be able to help make this a reality. I’m not sure what will come of this letter but with all of the wonderful people we’ve met locally I have faith that one day this may very well become a reality here in our little town.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!
“He who feeds a hungry animal feeds his own soul.” (A beautiful quote by Charles Chaplin)
Amanda Moore