Pets to benefit in Food Shelf give out this week

Bud Mattson, head of the Ely Area Food Shelf found quite a surprise waiting for him outside of the Food Shelf doorway. There were bags and bags of food to be brought in and stacked on the shelves. While stacking he found that the bags were full of dog and cat food and thought there must be a mistake. The bags were taken over to the Ely Vet Clinic. But the bags were planned to be for the Food Shelf and were brought back to the place where they started. Bud met with Contented Critter founders Fay and Walter Peters several days later. The Peters are responsible for the Christmas food bags that have been prepared for dogs, senior dogs, puppies, kittens and cats. Anyone who qualifies for a food basket qualifies for a bag for an animal. Each bag contains at least three toys, treats, food, dry food, canned food or pouch food. Seven hundred bags were distributed to every AEOA Food Shelf north of Hermantown, including those in St. Louis, Lake, Cook and Carlton counties, and in Floodwood and Meadowlands, Hibbing, Gilbert, Ely, Tower - Soudan plus the Salvation Army in Virginia. Basically they went all around Duluth. They just couldn’t do Duluth this year. Contented Critters bought some of the contents, but 90% was donated, mostly from the Twin Cities area. Food distributors and Pet Smart stores, Purina, Royal Canine, Country Home Distributing are some of the donators of the food, toys and treats. Donations came in by the trailer loads with top of the line stuff and which has been saved for the bags since summer. The goodies were bagged and distributed from Biwabik Township Hall by volunteers. Last year they gave out 250 bags, this year 700, and by next year they hope to have 2,000 bags and be able to cover Duluth as well. The group is starting now to collect for next year. People all over are having a hard time and some of them have animals with no way of feeding them. If you need help with your animals call Larry or Sue Belger in Ely and if you would like to make a donation, send it to: S.N.A.P. Contented Critters Christmas Bags, PO Box 305, Makinen, MN 55763.