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New Pet Food Pantry Opens For LA's Unhoused Community
Kwane Stewart created the pet food pantry after years of providing free medical care to the pets of unhoused people.
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Frederic J. Brown
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AFP via Getty Images
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The unhoused community can now pick up free food for their dogs and cats at a new pantry in downtown L.A.
The project is from Kwane Stewart, who’s become known as “The Street Vet” by providing free medical care to the pets of unhoused people in L.A. and across California for more than a decade.
Stewart told LAist that while many unhoused owners are willing to make sacrifices for their pets, he noticed that many of the animals' nutrition has been inconsistent.
The new pantry — which launched last week at the Skid Row Community Refresh Spot at 544 Towne Ave. — is a huge shed stocked full of dozens of bags of premium dog food. Stewart is also throwing in a couple bags of cat food, but he said most unhoused pet owners have dogs.
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People who are unhoused can take what they need for their furry friends, free of charge.
"It's a little bit of a beta test,” Stewart said. “I'm going to learn more as we go, how often I need to stock it, get what kind of cadence I'll be on. And then I plan to expand this to other areas, to other markets that we're doing this treatment work in.”
Stewart said at least 70% of the dog food he stocked last week was gone by Monday.
If you want to support the pet food pantry, you can donate to Project Street Vet. Stewart hopes he’ll be able to expand the idea into other cities and even partner with a pet food company.
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