Tomlinson's Feed Of Austin Launches Food Drive For Animal Rescues

AUSTIN, TX — Tomlinson's Feed — the family-owned pet food store offering healthful meals for pets that is based in Austin — is hosting its annual Pound4Pound food drive, officials announced on Tuesday.

Presented by KXAN, the event is scheduled from Friday through Dec. 24. The event is designed to help feed local animal rescues throughout next year, officials explained in an advisory. To that end, Tomlinson's and six of its pet food suppliers (Lotus, Open Farm, Nulo, Fromm, Stella & Chewy’s, and Zignature) will match donations — pound for pound — for every bag of food donated in store or online.

The food collected during the drive will be distributed throughout 2021 to 35 area rescues spanning from Georgetown to New Braunfels, officials said. Last year, officials noted, 163,584 pounds of healthy pet food for deserving rescues and pets in need, which is still being distributed.

General Manager Brandon Click and Kate Knecht load up pet food benefiting rescues across the region at last year's food drive organized by Tomlinson's Feed. Photo by Kimberly Kenney of Tomlinson's Feed.

“The need for rescues and foster families to step up during a time when shelters have been limited on interactions with the public has been critical,” Megan Gotta, intake coordinator and board member for Austin Dog Rescue, said in a prepared statement. “Austin Dog Rescue is so grateful, due to our amazing foster homes, to be able to help fill that gap by pulling a record number of foster dogs into our program during the pandemic. But in a time when many families are struggling financially being able to provide quality dog food to fosters has allowed some fosters to say YES to a new foster pup when otherwise they might have had to decline. Pound for Pound has literally been the difference in saving lives.”

More than 30 hard-working pet rescues — including the Central Texas SPCA, WilCo Regional Animal Shelter and Austin Dog Rescue — are among beneficiaries of the Pound4Pound Program. The donated food helps local rescues and shelters meet the nutritional needs of their pets and frees up funds for medical cases that would otherwise be spent on food, officials said.

“Now more than ever the rescue pets need our help to stay healthy, happy, and adoptable until their forever family finds them,” Scott Click, owner of Tomlinson’s Feed, said in a prepared statement. “This holiday season, we’ve set a goal to raise over 175,000 pounds of pet food. We invite our customers to join us as we work to feed Austin’s rescue pet community through 2021.”

The Central Texas community can contribute to Tomlinson’s Feed Pound4Pound pet food drive starting Friday through Dec. 24 at any Tomlinson’s Feed location or via tomlinsons.com.

About Tomlinson’s Feed

Founded in 1946, Tomlinson's Feed is the leading provider of natural, healthy pet products in Central Texas. It has been owned and operated by the Click family of Austin for four generations. Tomlinson's is dedicated to seeing that all customers are treated like family thanks to knowledgeable team members and world-class service. For more information, please visit www.tomlinsons.com.