February is usually associated with Valentine’s Day, but there are many different kinds of love to celebrate outside of romantic love! This month of love is the perfect time to show some extra warmth and appreciation to our fellow humans and pets. We can share the love in many ways, one of the most impactful being giving back to the community.
For pet stores and brands, February is a great time to think about how to give back to local communities and the wider pet community. Keep reading to learn more about how Astro Loyalty shares the love during this season, and familiarize yourself with some pet brands that go the extra mile to give back.
Astro’s “Sharing the Love” Campaign
One of the ways Astro gives back is through our “Sharing the Love” campaign. Through this program, Astro works with local, indy pet stores and stellar brands to create welcome home gift bundles for people who have just adopted a pet. This program allows us to support pets and their humans while promoting independent pet stores and brands that truly care about pets’ health, safety, and quality of life.
As of 2019, over 2 million pets who enter animal shelters go unadopted each year. Sharing the Love encourages people and families to do good by adopting. In turn, this benefits the pet community in multiple ways and helps more pets find loving forever-homes.
The Importance of Giving Back
Many issues continue to impact the pet community. Too many pets go unadopted each year, while others live in homes without access to affordable and healthy pet food. Local pet stores play an important role in the pet community as a source of pet supplies and support.
Showing love to pet owners and pets who need help is a great way for independent pet stores and brands to give back. This builds lasting relationships and meaningful connections in the pet community and on a global scale.
Brands That Give Back
The act of giving back can take many forms. In the pet community, many businesses have gone above and beyond to step up to support pets and people who may need extra assistance. For some brands, giving back is about providing an exemplary product and an avenue for pets to gain access to healthy, delicious food. While others are stout supporters of community, environmental, and pet charities.
Here are five pet brands that prioritize sharing some love of their own and giving back to the pet community.
During my research for this article, I gleefully discovered that most (if not all) of our brand partners regularly contribute to causes they believe in. If I were to list them in this single article, you’d be reading for hours. So I’m going to turn this into a monthly series then we can all take a beat and celebrate our community of do-gooders together! 🙌
Almo Nature
Almo Nature gives back to pets through their day-to-day work—making pet food that is environmentally friendly and good for your pet. However, Almo goes one step further with its “Meal With Love” campaign. This campaign aims to support struggling pet owners by providing free, accessible, healthy pet food at no cost. 10% of Almo’s sales go towards the “Meal With Love” initiative, providing pet meals through local food banks.
This effort can have a significant impact on families, allowing pet owners to feed their pets well during difficult times. It also supports pets by ensuring they can stay in the home they’re familiar with and consistently have access to nutritious food.
Almo Nature is owned by Fondazione Capellino, a non-profit that follows a “Reintegration Economy” model in which its business practices and 100% of its revenues (after taxes and expenses) contribute to protecting our planet’s biodiversity.
Fromm Family Foods
Fromm Family Foods takes a different—but equally impactful—approach to giving back. Their efforts center on community outreach and supporting local pet organizations. For example, Fromm Family Foods partners with Southeastern Guide Dogs, an organization dedicated to training guide and service dogs for those who need them most.
To support these dogs and their handlers, Fromm Family Foods donates nutritious dog food at no cost to ensure these dogs can be at their best at all times. Guide dogs work tirelessly to give back to the community, so Fromm Family Foods gives back to them!
Stella and Chewy’s
Stella and Chewy’s share the love by helping pets find a good home. They focus on directly giving back to pets in shelters who are looking to be adopted, specifically pets who are older. They donate meals to pets living in shelters and help sponsor adoption fees for adult and senior pets over the age of five. Through their work, Stella and Chewy’s has donated over 6.5 million meals and sponsored over 270,000 dollars in adoption fees. Clearly, this brand’s efforts serve to help both pets and aspiring pet owners.
There is an unfortunately high number of pets in need of adoption across the country, but adoption can be expensive, and the fees can be a barrier to helping pets find a loving home. Stella and Chewy’s donations and sponsorships help reduce the number of pets in shelters by making pet adoption more accessible.
Nulo
Nulo is also a contributing member of Astro’s ‘Sharing The Love’ Adoption Reward Program!
Many independent and natural pet brands have origin stories that begin with one pet parent striving to find the best for their pet. Nulo is no different. It all started when Michael took his dog Max on an epic road trip from California to Colorado. During this journey with his best friend Max, he mulled over the lack of pet care options available to pet parents like him and decided to do something about it. Before long, Nulo was born!
As Nulo grew, Michael discovered some pretty alarming trends in the pet community. Such as the growing number of pets becoming seriously overweight and developing diabetes. Being a former biomedical engineer, Michael was able to trace the root cause to the foods our pets were consuming. He found that most major pet food brands contain more than 40% carb fillers and were nutritionally equivalent to fast food for humans.
Now he was determined to formulate the highest quality pet food possible so Max and pets everywhere would have the nutrition they desperately needed. Michael vowed never to take any shortcuts with his pet food. “The standard has been, and always will be, if Michael wouldn’t feed it to Max, Nulo won’t sell it.”
Share The Love!
So many players in the pet community are working to give back and improve the lives of pets and their people. February is a great time to spread love to the pet community by giving back. If you’re an independent pet retailer or a pet brand, join Astro’s “Sharing the Love” campaign to provide high-quality products to recently adopted pets and their new owners.
There are 39 pet specialty brands ‘Sharing The Love’ on Astro! Will your brand be number 40?
If you want to embrace the season and share your love for pets and people, consider volunteering at your local animal shelter or donating money, food, or other products to people and pets in need. Even a small contribution can go a long way!
