Updates from Petey's Promise

Organizers of a drive to provide pet food for owners who can’t afford to feed their dogs and cats have announced four sites where the food can be picked up.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Care & Control Services are teaming in this effort, which also includes an effort to get pet food and financial contributions from the public.

In addition, Harrisburg-based Petey’s Promise offers help to pet owners who are facing the same problem.

Petey’s Promise has been operating less than a year, and Mellott said creating a nonprofit from scratch is a daunting task. But once she completed the paperwork, Mellott and co-worker Sara Barkman launched a Web site to help get the word out.

It didn’t take long to realize how much need there was.

“We had to jump right in,” Mellott said. “We knew there were animals starving. We didn’t want people to have to return animals to the shelter because they couldn’t feed them.”