Feeding the furry: Meals on Wheels America is helping to ensure that the pets of elderly citizens in Orlando, Florida, don’t go hungry.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, the non-profit awarded a $2,500 grant to local organization Seniors First in September to help provide 150 pets — and 100 owners — with animal necessities such as food, collars, leashes, toys, grooming and veterinary care to its elderly community members by March 2019.
As Seniors First President and CEO Marsha Lorenz told the publication, furry family members are a top priority for the charity’s senior owners, and for good reason: “For many of our community’s senior citizens, their pets are their only true companions, helping to alleviate the loneliness they suffer,” she said.
As a result, Lorenz says that older individuals will go without to keep their beloved pets fed: “Many seniors will go hungry themselves before they let their pet miss a meal.”
The Sentinel reports that Meals on Wheels America has granted more than $200,000 to 100 of its programs, with the initiative distributing more than $2.4 million in pet food and assistance since its launch in 2007. “The Meals on Wheels Loves Pets program enables Seniors First to provide pet food and other necessary services to ease some of that burden and make it possible for local seniors and their beloved pets to stay together,” the organization’s CEO and President, Ellie Hollander, said.
Meals on Wheels America works to provide senior citizens with nutritious meals, companionship and safety through its 5,000 independently run programs across America.
