Dog food for the food bank

[macaroniplease]

My dog has decided she doesn’t like a particular brand of dog food, leaving me with several unopened tins. Rather than throw them away, I thought I’d put them in the food bank collection at Tesco.

As I was doing this, an elderly woman came over and told me off, saying that food banks were for people, not dogs, and that I shouldn’t be putting pet food in there.

I was a bit taken aback. Surely people who are struggling to afford food might also be struggling to feed their pets? I thought I was doing something quite nice!

I didn’t argue with her but it’s been bothering me since.

AIBU? Is donating dog food to a food bank actually a bad thing?

Ours has pet food and cat litter as well

She’s being a knob, our local foodbank happily takes it and took our unopened tins when our dog died.

Som food banks take pet food, some do not. You just need to research which ones do that are closest to you.

A lot of desperate people would take the pet food before they even thought of themselves. You were doing a good thing.

It might be just her opinion 🤷🏼‍♀️

Did you leave the tins? I would have

Unless she was an official person from the foodbank telling you no, then I'd have been polite and kind but ignored her completely unsolicited and possibly incorrect advice

She is an idiot…does she think pet owners don’t end up poor 🤷‍♀️

If you are broke enough to use a food bank and you have a pet then you are broke enough to hope that you can get pet food from the food bank surely.

Bizarre that she had an issue with it

Lots of supermarkets have separate pet collection points. Ignore the woman but it's best to check it the food bank your collection is for accepts pet food before donating.

A local church has a monthly collection for a food bank, and I ALWAYS include pet food. I know that if I could not afford to buy food, I would feed my cats before I would eat. The local food bank always takes the donations, and they are used.

My Foodbank gives out dog food. Often requested.

Youre fine, she was just being a bellend

You are definitely not being unreasonable.

What was her thinking: that you should throw perfectly good dogfood away unused?

Or that people who are feeling the pinch should let their animals starve?

It baffles me she could object to you donating something you can’t use & that others can.

I checked with our local food bank when our DDog died and they were happy to accept some unopened tins I had.

Please do donate, we run a community pantry at our church and cat and dog food is very popular. We have two service users who are homeless and in tents and they have dogs. They love their dogs and the dogs need feeding too. Is not unusual for these animal lovers to refuse to be housed in a hostel/b and b if it means they have to surrender their doggy and honestly I can’t say I blame them. All they have is the dog. The dog is often the only relationship they have. So they often prefer to stay in a tent and we also now provide tents, bed rolls, fleece blankets and sleeping bags etc. I could never see somebody sleeping in a dire way exposed to the elements. And I could never see a dog or cat hungry either

She's mistaken , maybe she thought you were putting in pet food for the people to eat?
She's old, id let it go.

My employer partners with a food bank, and they take pet food. I tried a new brand with my cat and she wouldn't go near it so donated it to the food bank. It was gladly received

YANBU. Tell busybody to mind her own business.

God, I’m so confused as to why I’m being called a liar about this. It did happen and there is no separate pet food bin at my local Tesco. Modern life is honestly wild. Being called a liar by strangers on the internet over something not even that wild?

Thanks to the saner people for their replies. I was slightly concerned I had made a mistake but reassured now.

I've volunteered for our local food bank. We absolutely welcome donations of dog food. If people are struggling to feed themselves they're probably struggling to feed their pets!

We also take sanpro, nappies, toothbrushes etc. We always tried to put a treat in a food bank parcel too.

Unsure why that poster is calling you a liar, report the comments and ignore.

Most foodbanks are crying out for dog food. Your donation will be very welcome.