Pets across Britain will benefit from a nationwide partnership between Blue Cross and Macfarlane Packaging, who will deliver donated pet food to the places it is needed most across the country.
As the cost of living crisis continues, some pet owners are facing the increasingly difficult challenge of ensuring that their animals don’t go hungry. Meanwhile, more and more people are turning to pet food banks to feed their animals. Blue Cross is a charity that, among other services, provides pet food banks where pet owners can source food for their four-legged friends –without judgment. They also work with an array of human food banks, supporting them with much needed pet food for those people who are legible to receive donations.
Blue Cross has received donations of dog, cat and other pet food but faced the challenge of getting these much-needed supplies from a central location to their front-line food banks and community hubs.
Now Macfarlane Packaging’s logistics team has stepped in, deploying some of its nationwide Regional Distribution Centres (RDCs) and a number of its 150-strong fleet of trucks, to solve the problem. Macfarlane will collect the donated pet food and deliver pallets of it to its RDCs. The supplies will then be sent onwards to Blue Cross’s pet food banks and community distribution points. Over 40 deliveries are scheduled that will see the partnership extend well into 2023.
Tim Hylton, Macfarlane’s Logistics Director, who leads deliveries on behalf of the packaging distributor, said: “No one at Macfarlane would want pets to go without, just because these supplies were in the wrong place. So, we’re happy to step in and help. It’s a great opportunity to give back to the communities we operate in and to our four-legged friends.”
Chris Burghes, Chief Executive at Blue Cross said: “Our pet food banks across the UK are proving to be a lifeline to many pet owners, helping to keep pets and their owners together through difficult times. We are so grateful to Macfarlane for offering their services to help us to get the pet food to food banks and support even more owners in need.”
Macfarlane Packaging is also encouraging each of its 1,000-strong team of colleagues in the UK to volunteer for a day at a Blue Cross facility without sacrificing any pay and plans to extend its support for the charity further during 2023. This is part of Macfarlane Group’s environment, social and governance strategy, which includes investing in the community through charitable fundraising and volunteering.
