DENVER — Colorado Pet Pantry is finding other ways to collect and distribute donations after their box truck was stolen from storage last week.
The nonprofit group distributes pet food to families in need throughout Colorado. They said in a Facebook post that their six-pallet box truck was stolen from its offsite storage location on Friday. The thief climbed the fence, broke into the truck and then crashed it through the security gate, the group said.
The nonprofit said they used the truck to pick up large donations from major brands, transport food to more remote locations and host larger pet food banks in the metro area.
"As soon as the truck was stolen, that put us immediately into a mode of just trying to figure out how we can continue to do our jobs, which is to help people to feed their pets when they're having hard financial times," said Eileen Lambert, executive director and founder. "So right away, we started to arrange to pick up donations with other methods, either asking volunteers to help or borrowing vehicles, that kind of thing."
Lambert said on Monday that the nonprofit group rented a truck to help with one of their larger food banks.
She said it's unlikely the truck will be recovered, and if it is, they're not sure what condition it will be in because the thief crashed it through a gate.
"We're not going to let this get us down," Lambert said. "We're going to figure out how to continue to do our job. It just makes it more complicated. Resources are being drained with having to rent vehicles and thinking through the strategy of how we're still going to get these donations and how we’re still going to distribute the pet food to the people who need our help."
Lambert said the nonprofit has seen an outpouring of support from the community, and they're hopeful they'll be able to buy a replacement truck soon.
> If you'd like to help, visit the Colorado Pet Pantry website.
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