Helping families feed their pets this Christmas
Every Can Counts – that’s the message behind the new charitable initiative, Cans4Pets.
The brainchild of design agency MBC, Cans4Pets is hoping to help prevent families being put into a situation where they feel they have no choice but to abandon their beloved pet because of the cost of living crisis.
Launching on 1st December as a joint charitable initiative with office rental agency TCN UK, the scheme is encouraging people to donate cans of pet food and leave them at designated drop off points. These cans or pouches of food will then be given away free to people with pets who use local food banks.
“We often talk about brands needing to add value to people’s lives beyond their products’, explained Robin Horrex, Founder of We Are MBC, ‘and it got us thinking about what we could do. Staff here are huge animal lovers, and a lot of our work is focused on animal health marketing, so we know how important pets are to people. But the cost of living crisis sadly means some people will have to make the difficult decision to give up their pets. We wanted to do something about that.”
Having recently moved into offices at the Dog House in Reading, We Are MBC approached TCN, their landlord to see if they could help with the distribution. Always keen to support their creative communities and themselves massive animal lovers, TCN generously agreed to help, especially as one dog in particular, Trammell, has been at the heart of the company since day one. (https://www.tcnuk.co.uk/the-team/#trammell)
Managing Director, Robert Hoadley at TCN said:
“We all know pets are an important part of the family, so the idea of giving them up because we cannot afford to feed them is unthinkable, but sometimes that’s the choice people must make. TCN wants to help prevent that happening. Using our network of creative & dog friendly workspaces as drop of points around the UK, including London, Bristol and Norwich, Members and public alike can donate cans, pouches, and packets of pet food. The TCN team will then coordinate with local foodbanks to distribute the donations, and hopefully ease the burden of families with pets who are struggling to make ends meet.”
There is also a Just giving page at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/cans4pets for people to make a cash donation to the cause if they are unable to get to the drop-off points.
The campaign will run from the start of December until Christmas when people are feeling the pinch most keenly. But as Robin explained, everyone is hopeful the campaign will run for longer.
“To paraphrase a famous slogan ‘Pets are for life, not just for Christmas’, so we would love nothing more than for this to become a source of support for people as long as they need it. And please give what you can, as when it comes to helping families feed their pets every CAN counts”
Please visit https://cans4pets.org/ to find out more about the Cans4Pets scheme.