Big Y Foods Inc.’s fifth annual ‘May is Pet Month’ initiative resulted in close to 22,000 pounds of pet food and supplies donated to 45 different local animal shelters.
The program, which ran in all 70 Big Y markets from April 25 through May 29, encouraged customers to purchase food and other supplies for a local shelter as part of the company’s ongoing effort to give back to the community.
Each Big Y enjoyed decorating their store’s donation bins with pictures of their family pets. Many customers also donated other needed pet items such as collars, leashes, cat litter, and pet toys.
In addition to food and supply donations, Big Y partnered with iHeart Media and Pure Harmony pet food to collect donations at the checkout.
More than $84,000 was raised from these donations to be distributed to the MSCPA-Angell of Massachusetts (with their four locations throughout the state), Kenway’s Cause, CT Humane Society and The Hometown Foundation (which supports over 15 animal rescues/shelters).
New to the program this year was the ability for customers to purchase a Big Y Cares reusable shopping bag where one dollar for each bag purchased was donated to local charities.
Big Y’s fifth annual pet month has resulted in a five year total of over 197,000 pounds of pet food and supplies donated to local shelters and a total of over $266,000 raised.
Headquartered in Springfield, Mass., Big Y operates almost 80 stores throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts with more than 11,000 employees.