Citrus County Community Services’ PetMeals Program recently received a $1,750 grant from Banfield Charitable Trust to help provide pet food for the companion pets of homebound seniors.

Banfield’s mission is to keep pets and families together. The trust, a non-profit offshoot of Banfield Pet Hospital, has been making it possible for pets to enjoy a better quality of life, the trust states, by giving back to communities and helping advance pet-related charities.

Citrus County’s Home Delivered Meal Program provides a nutritious daily meal to seniors in Citrus County. Hunger can become a mutual problem for pets as well as their owners, especially when the owners are homebound.

People have been known to go without eating so that their companion pets can eat. The PetMeals Program was created to help seniors provide the proper food for their dogs and while getting their own proper nutrition from Meals on Wheels.

Banfield Charitable Trust has teamed up with Meals on Wheels Association of America to help start and sustain pet food distribution programs with more than $1 million annually awarded to non-profit organizations across the country.

Citrus County’s PetMeals Program partners with the Key Training Center. The program is 100 percent donation based and volunteer driven. While the grant from the Banfield Charitable Trust will help provide for the program, it is always seeking help with donations of unopened pet food, as well as volunteers to help deliver the pet food to clients.
There is currently a need for a volunteer coordinator for the PetMeals Program. The coordinator would coordinate the meals office, the volunteers from the Key Training Center who package the pet food, and the volunteer drivers who deliver the food. For more information about either the Home Delivered Meals Program or the PetMeals Program, call 352-527-5978.