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Pantry also helps animal lovers

Catnip & Carrots  nonprofit provides  bags of food so pets  don’t go hungry.

Chie Yoshimura (left) and Susan Wise, co-founders of Catnip and Carrots Animal Bunch in Monroe, deliver a truckload of cat food to the Franklin Food Pantry on Tuesday, Jan. 12, to help people who can’t afford to feed their pets.

Staff photo by Pat Auckerman Chie Yoshimura (left) and Susan Wise, co-founders of Catnip and Carrots Animal Bunch in Monroe, deliver a truckload of cat food to the Franklin Food Pantry on Tuesday, Jan. 12, to help people who can’t afford to feed their pets.

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By Rick McCrabb, Staff Writer Updated 11:37 PM Tuesday, January 12, 2010

FRANKLIN — Alice Caudell, a single mother of four, barely has enough money to buy groceries, and this week, she’s drowning in her water bill.

“They’re about to shut it off,” she said.

No wonder Caudell was one of the first through the door when Franklin Area Community Services opened its food pantry on Tuesday, Jan. 12.

After having her grocery cart loaded with food, she spotted Susan Wise and Chie Yoshimura, co-founders of Monroe-based Catnip & Carrots Animal Bunch, a nonprofit organization concerned with the welfare of cats and rabbits, wheeling in bags of Iams cat food.

“Can I have some?” she asked a volunteer.

“Sure,” he said.

Later, Caudell, who owns three cats and five kittens, said: “You don’t know what this means?”

Wise and Yoshimura dropped off 80 bags of Iams cat and dog food — valued at $1,200 — at the food pantry. Wise, a native of Hamilton and 1977 graduate of Taft High School, said they donated about 50 bags around Christmas, and after seeing the need in the Franklin area, they returned.

Coupons and financial donations were used to purchase the food, Wise said.

Terry Coyle — director of the agency that serves 1,000 families from Carlisle, Franklin and Springboro a month — called the bags of food “awesome and wonderful.”

For many of her clients, their pets are family, she said.

“When people are going through hard times, and believe me, a lot of people are, it affects families and their pets,” she said.

Catnip & Carrots was founded in Huntington Beach, Calif., but when Wise moved to Monroe to care for her parents, a chapter was opened there.

Wise said several Butler County organizations held animal food drives during the holidays, so she decided to reach out to Warren County.

“There is a need here,” she said. “We can see that.”

It showed on Caudell’s face.

Contact this

columnist

at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com.

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