When people go hungry, so do their pets.

PetSmart Charities partners with Feeding America and Meals on Wheels America so families already receiving human food assistance can get pet food too — keeping pets and people together.

Food alongside food

Neither partner is an animal welfare organization — that's exactly the point. Feeding America feeds people through food banks; Meals on Wheels America feeds homebound seniors. PSC's role is to make sure the pets in those same households don't get left out.

Why this partnership, not a shelter or rescue
Feeding America distributions are intended to keep pets with their families by providing pet food alongside human food. When a family has to choose between feeding themselves and feeding their pet, that's when pets end up surrendered. This partnership exists so they don't have to choose.

How the funding is actually used

The two partnerships work through genuinely different mechanisms — worth knowing before assuming "grant support" means the same thing in both cases.

Feeding America: in-kind product

PSC doesn't send Feeding America cash for pet food — it sends the pet food itself, manufactured by partner Alphia. That product moves through the existing food bank network at no added cost to food banks or the families they serve, alongside the human food already being distributed there.

Meals on Wheels America: sub-granted funding

PSC's support is a cash grant to Meals on Wheels America nationally, which re-grants it directly to local member programs as Loves Pets Grants. Local programs then decide how to spend it — typically pet food purchases, basic veterinary care access, and the staff time or transportation needed to add pet-inclusive service to an existing senior meal route.

Why this distinction matters

Feeding America's side scales through product volume — more pounds of pet food into more food banks. Meals on Wheels America's side scales through local flexibility — each program spends its grant on whatever its specific seniors and pets actually need. Both are "funding," but they solve the problem differently.

Feeding America

The nation's largest hunger-relief network — PSC provides pet food, prepared by partner Alphia, for distribution alongside human food.

  • 250+ food banks
  • 21 statewide food bank associations
  • 60,000 partner agencies, pantries & meal programs

How Food Banks Work

  1. Surplus food is donated or rescued
  2. Local food banks collect and store food
  3. Food is distributed to local partner agencies
  4. Tens of millions of neighbors served

PSC's role in that chain
PSC-donated pet food moves through the same network above, reaching pet parents at the same food banks where they already pick up food for themselves. In 2025, that meant 53.5 million meals — 10.6 million pounds of pet food — distributed through Feeding America.

Meals on Wheels America

Since 2020, PSC support has helped local Meals on Wheels programs deliver pet food and veterinary care alongside meals for homebound older adults — so seniors don't have to choose between feeding themselves and keeping their pet.

  • 54,000+ older adults served
  • 82,000+ pets served
  • 6 years of partnership

Programming
Expands pet support services that help older adults keep the companionship of their pets.

Partnership
Strengthens local networks connecting seniors to pet food, veterinary care, and other critical resources.

Influence
Raises awareness of the role pets play in healthy aging, driving fundraising and long-term sustainability.

2026 reach
This year, Meals on Wheels America awarded 62 Loves Pets Grants across 35 states, including support for 14 new pet programs, and recognized 7 Regional Leader Awards for innovation and impact.

What the shared mission looks like in practice

Two different organizations, two different funding mechanisms — but the same outcome, told from both sides of the partnership.

On the Feeding America side, Diane Letson, the organization's VP of food industry partnerships, has described the goal plainly: when a family is food insecure, their pet usually is too, and distributing pet food right alongside human food at local food banks means families and their pets "stay together."

On the Meals on Wheels America side, that same idea plays out one household at a time — like Joyce, an older adult supported by her local Meals on Wheels program, and her rescue dog Mystie. Pet food support through the Loves Pets program is what lets that bond keep going, rather than becoming one more thing Joyce has to give up to get by.

Read more: Joyce and Mystie's story

What both partnerships add up to

PSC committed $9.8 million in grant support across both partners in 2025 alone.

420M+

pet meals delivered to date, on track for 450M by year end

56M

meals provided in 2025

1 in 5

seniors skip meals so their pet can eat

The ongoing need

This partnership is growing, but it isn't closing the gap on its own — both partners report real shortfalls.

63%

of Feeding America food banks say their pet food supply isn't sufficient to meet the need they see.

~50%

of Meals on Wheels pet programs report their procurement doesn't supply enough pet food.

~$500k

spent annually, per surveyed Meals on Wheels programs, just to bridge that gap themselves.

Questions about this partnership?

Reach out to the pet hunger program team directly.